Part One: Illusions
by shallowswan
Summary: Love. Peace. Happiness. These are dangerous illusions that the Vampire Hunter D cannot allow himself to experience. But even the great Vampire Hunter D knows their temptation...he might even give in. currently revising!
1. Chapter 1: The Veil

**Part One: Illusions**

_Authors Note: Hope that you enjoy this, it is some of my best work. It is the beginning of a four part saga, the others may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this story also serves well as a stand alone story if that is the way you wish to think of it. Without further ado…(and with minimum ramblings from myself), I give you __**Illusions**__! :D_

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**Chapter One: The Veil**

_"See the light cease in thy life, profound words...hurting me." -Beyond the Veil, Tristania_

It was the year 12,569 when the Vampire Hunter D lay dying beneath the glare of the merciless sun. It was on this mercilessly hot day that D met the most intricate illusion of his immortality.

It seemed that he was beyond all hope as D lay defeated, and caught out in the middle of the Frontier without his horse, hopelessly wounded and paralyzed with sun sickness. He wasn't even far from the battle that he'd fled wildly from, utterly conquered. His enemy could not be far. But soon enough D had succumbed to the pain and collapsed, soon paralyzed, beneath the feeble shade of an iron oak tree, and he surrendered to impeding Death. In the haze of semi-consciousness he felt his left hand stirring about, consuming the elements and trying to pump life back into his body but it was no use. The poison pounding throughout his blood stream was too strong, too corrosive even for the symbiote's healing. D's consciousness faded from the world of the living…

When he opened his eyes the Hunter found himself standing in a formless, mist shrouded landscape; all that had solidity within this world was a towering mass before his eyes. Stepping near he saw that it was a stone archway set upon a tall dais. Through this ancient archway, which was cracked almost to the point of crumbling there hung a tattered black curtain, or rather a veil that fluttered and swayed as if someone had just passed through it. For a moment D's gorgeous visage was flooded with a look of wonder, he knew this gateway…he'd seen the countless times he'd "died" only to be rescued by the symbiote residing in his left hand. It was the portal to the beyond, to the underworld where only the dead could linger. But those times the gateway had been closed off to him, the curtain remained still and immobile, but now it swayed almost seductively. He could see a faint blue light just beyond the veil…

"NO! No don't go man! No I need you! The world needs you, don't you dare!" his left hand was protesting in violent desperation. "Once you go, your gone! There ain't no coming back! There ain't no coming back!"

The archway seemed to whispering to D…a soft, gentle song that promised him rest, peace and love. It sang in voices that he'd long forgotten the sound of, even if he'd not forgotten the faces of those they belonged to. Women and children he'd saved, and men he'd slain, women he'd bedded, men he'd tortured out of anger or necessity, demons that howled in their death throes, but the most tempting voice was the low, husky voice of his long deceased mother.

"Come to me D….follow my voice…it's time…it's time at last. Nothing can part us anymore…"

D's feet moved forward seemingly against his own will, but he stared hard at the fluttering veil and spoke, "Your lying."

'I would never lie to you D…" the low voice whispered.

"You lied to me every day about who I am…about _him. _You twisted me, corrupted me just as _he_ did. But you did teach me this…peace, rest and love… they are nothing more than illusions. All those lies died with you, Mother." He spoke impassively, his eyes bright as if ice were forming behind them rather than tears. Would tears ever dare to touch this Hunters beautiful face?

Than as if his very statement had summoned it, the deus ex machina he'd needed arrived. D tasted blood on his lips, human blood that was warm and succulent, and more vibrant than anything he'd ever before tasted. It was flowing past his parched lips and across his tongue. The taste of blood will bring a vampire back from the brink of death, even if he were an inch from it, sometimes even blood could rescue a vampire from the stake. A dhampir was no different.

The vision before him was ripped away as D's physical eyes flew open and with primal greed he arched toward the source of the blood, found the body it flowed from and latched tightly onto it, crushing it against his mouth and sinking his fangs deeply into it's flesh. D moaned at the vivid, sweet taste of the elixir he so craved and so devoutly denied, sounding more like a man who'd reached the peak of carnal ecstasy. He withdrew his fangs from the flesh, and sucked covetously at the river he'd welled forth. How many centuries had passed since he'd had a taste of human blood? He couldn't recall…all he could focus on was the health and the vitality that was surging through his savaged body, the wild peaks of rapture that tingled throughout him at the sweet forbidden taste.

In time he gained focus and saw that his savior was a young woman, who had offered him her wrist. Her white blonde hair was tousled by the wind and her face was contorted with pain but she did not pull way.

Helpless to refuse her sacred offering D drank until he sensed the girl's consciousness was fading and he pulled away, gasping with uncharacteristic relief, "Thank you!"

Power coursed through D as he sat up, but only a second later his vision swam and fire flared in his veins. A sharp gasp betrayed his lips. He'd forgotten the strength of the poison that had claimed him…it consumed life, it seemed all the girl had done was buy him a few more moments before death.

"What? What is it?" she asked with all the concern of a mother nursing a child.

Silently D fell backward and he pushed away the coat that had been covering the wound.

The girl's eyes went wide, but she didn't seem as horrified as a girl her age should have been. The wound was very grave indeed, however. D had been impaled right through the midsection by a foot long stinger, and the wound was clotted thick by blood, dirt and blue venom that burbled and burst as it seeped through the wound.

"By Goddess…that's a manticore sting! Not even a dhampir like yourself can survive that…nothing can!"

Grimly, D nodded, "Thank you still for your sacrifice." His voice was as detached and monotone as it always was.

But a look of courage crossed the girls face and she set her jaw stubbornly, 'Well, lucky for you I do not give up that easily." And she took a bit of D's cape and wrapped it around her hands, in a single quick motion she yanked the stinger free. The only evidence the Hunter showed of pain was a slight crease on his brow.

The girl slung off a pack from her shoulder that seemed to be woven from vines and a leathery bark, and after pulling a water skin from the pack she began to wash and clean the hopeless wound all the same. All to soon the dire pain that had driven D to the hopeless edge over took him again, it was as if fire was raging through his veins, eating away at tissue, muscle and even bone...even he could not suppress a roaring cry as the agony gripped his heart. Again he found himself utterly paralyzed, shadows again swam in his vision.

Than the girl did something even stranger…she'd began to sing. Her voice was high and clear, almost operatic as it chanted a language unfamiliar even to the Hunter. As her song rose and fell D felt calm returning to his body, numbing away the pain of the poison, his nerves pushing it aside as if it were unimportant.

And…even stranger a burst of flame seemed to rocket above the line of the scattered trees in the distance. The soaring ball of fire seemed to move of it's own accord and race toward the Hunter and the girl, taking a form that was not a ball of flame but a bird. The bird was roughly the size of an eagle, and it's head and wings were bright crimson and gold, and the whole of its body was encased with flames that flickered and burned but never died out in the rush of the wind. If D hadn't seen this unbelievable sight once before, he would have sworn that his eyes were deceiving him.

It was a Phoenix, one of the countless experiments of the Nobilities supremacy, but a failed one in their eyes. The Phoenix had only the ability to help those in need and to heal those near death with its incredible powers. Legends said that the Nobles had killed all but four of them; they'd meant to make a bird that did the opposite of healing.

The girl's song warbled like a birdcall as the Phoenix drifted nearer and nearer at last landing softly beside the fallen Hunter and the girl. No heat came from the flames that encircled it body. It surveyed the scene with its wide golden eyes and looked toward the girl.

She reached out fearlessly and touched the golden plumed head, her hands merely passing through the flames. "This is the Vampire Hunter D. He is perhaps the greatest Hunter to have ever lived. Will you cry for him?"

The fire bird gave a soft, hooting call then stepped over to D and bent it's swan like neck over his wound, pearly white tears welled within the golden eyes, the tear than fell onto the Hunter's savaged skin. Another tear fell…than another. Had this been any other man they would have cried themselves at the sight of this strange and unlikely scene. Phoenix tears could heal any wound, any illness and any poison…but a Phoenix cried only a single tear every year, and almost assuredly rarely for the lives of humans, and especially never for dhampirs nor the Nobility.

D however, watched the scene without emotion or comment as all trace of the agony in his veins ebbed way, and the gapping hole in his abdomen faded away to nothing more than unmarred skin, torn cloth and pierced armor.

When the mythical bird turned and leapt silently into the sky, the Hunter, however, did spare a look of utmost amazement for the girl.


	2. Chapter 2: The Nymph

**_Part One: Illusions_ **

**Chapter Two – The Nymph**

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_"Fear and pain may accompany Death, but it is desire that shepherds it's certainty as we shall see..." Her Ghost in the Fog, Cradle of Filth._

The girl stayed faithfully by D's side as he burrowed into the Earth and slept, allowing his wounds and his illness to heal fully. When he rose from his makeshift grave, the dirt falling right off his beautiful form as if was loathe to mar him in any longer, he found that the girl had her back to him and she was feeding a horse. Judging from the gear on the horse's back, and the appearance of the horse D's suspicions were confirmed. It had no reins or saddle, and it was brilliant golden brown color that was unnatural to any human bred horse, the hair of it's mane and tail had a silver sheen, and its flesh was too lively, it's mane too long and wild to be that of a cyborg. This was a horse of the Fae that could only belong to a woman of the Fae.

"You're a Nymph, are you not?" asked D.

The girl whirled about to face him; her eyes were bright with outrage. Her hair was white, almost silvery sort of blonde and it hung in a flawless sheet down to her knees, small plaits were woven through it's form to keep the unworldly tresses from her eyes. Her eyes were as vivid as emeralds and her curves were too fell formed, too sensual to be that of any human woman. While she was not waif thin, her body still glowed with femininity that would have made any man that looked upon her weak with lust, as if the very hands of Venus had shaped her. She wore a simple and modest green tunic that seemed to be sewn together with vines, vines which she also wore as necklaces and bracelets, through her hair. Diminutive, undying flowers were her jewels.

She seemed a stark contrast to the Hunter that loomed a good foot above her, with his black garb and his black hair untamed beneath his hat, his form was the very definition of formidable, but somehow elegant beyond description. But despite his dark, radiant beauty the girl did not stare at him with the misty eyed expression most women had upon meeting D's gorgeous form. Rather she looked positively livid.

"What does it matter if I am!" she hissed.

D said nothing. In all honesty he didn't hold much respect for Nymphs. Like most creatures that roamed this world they had been created by Nobel experimentation.

In creating the Nymphs they bred only the most beautiful human women with their previously created male elves. The result was the Nymphs that were always born female, and were usually shallow, fiendish beings that cared only for the Earth beyond their endless pursuit of beauty and pleasures of the flesh. Their elven blood allowed them great magical ability but it was power they generally wasted in their endless, immortal hunt for sex. D's gorgeous countenance had made more than a few Nymphs swoon over him, and to dog in his footsteps for months at a time.

But the woman seemed to show none of that inanity. Still, D regarded her distantly.

"I own you my life. I must repay that debt." He answered almost mechanically.

The Nymph shook her head, sighing, "There is no debt. I am a traveling healer. I do this merely to help the helpless. I cannot charge you anymore than I would a penniless child. You may call me Luna."

"Call me D."

At this she smiled, "Call you D…well I knew that already but how about your real name? I did just save your life."

D said nothing.

She smiled a bit more, her jewel like eyes sparkled in the moonlight "Oh why not? My real name isn't Luna, it's Lunerahnefer. So how about it, what's yours?"

But D made no attempt to answer her, and merely surveyed his situation. He still had his longsword, and a few of his wooden throwing spears, but every other weapon he'd spent while fighting the manticore his foe had set upon him. His horse and the few possessions the Hunter owned were destroyed. He was caught in the midst of a vast, and rather featureless grassland with only a shrub and stand of trees here and there, but nothing else to be seen.

"We need to move." D stated in his firm, detached voice, " the beast that attacked me does not give up so easily. I am being hunted."

The Nymph looked over to her horse and flushed, "So…then I suppose you'll be riding with me, seeing as I don't intend to have to save you all over again."

"Does riding with me bother you?" answered D, again in utter indifference as he moved over to the Fae horse, and placed his elegant, thin hand on the beasts' head. It whickered in approval and lowered its head in submission.

'Well…yes!" the Nymph fumed, color bright in her cheeks, "I may have denounced the ways of my people for this cause, but I can't help what I am. I cannot imagine that I'll endure hours of being pressed up against a man as beautiful as yourself without becoming a little flustered."

"Try." He answered in his steely tone as he leapt easily on the horses back, and wound his long fingers through the mane. Luna clucked her tongue with indignation and glared at the young Hunter. After a seconds hesitation D extended his hand to the girl, but the girl snorted in disgust and batted his hand away. She did not wrap her arms around the man she'd just bleed to save, but rather glared harshly at his caped back and the elegant longsword slung there.

Hours passed without a single word as D nudged the horse to a gallop, the sun sank into the horizon and died in a burst of orange and scarlet. A paralyzing cold quickly descended over the land, and the stars had begun to appear from the darkness when the first wild howls began to circle the horse and riders. The Nymph's head snapped up from her thoughts, the howls seemed to be circling them, edging closer and closer. She could recognize the thunderous calls to be that of the bronze hounds. When she could see the eerie glow of the beasts' vivid blue eyes, D urged the horse to a stop.

The sound of heavy paws closing in on all sides filled the air, there was a flash of silver as D's sword slid out of its sheath, but it was Luna that dismounted the horse. Her body was still and her was face fearless as she walked into the midst of the gathering circle of beasts.

"Stop." She commanded firmly, but her voice seemed different…it was saccharine, as well as sultry and almost operatic. Each of the steel skinned wolves froze still in its tracks, and each muzzle turned obediently to the Nymph, their eyes blazing wilder than ever, but it was not with blood lust. Rather it was almost like they were suddenly awash with lust for pleasure.

"Woah…don't see that every day…" said a strange voice from around D's waist.

"Leave, don't come back." Luna continued in that strange, commanding voice.

Obediently the bronze hounds turned tail and fled from the scene; their foot falls uneven, as if in a daze.

Luna turned back to D as if nothing had happened, " We're stopping here for the night. Your welcome to keep going…on foot that is." She replied a bit waspishly, and hurriedly grabbed a thick hand made quilt from the horses back, wrapping it tight about her shivering body.

D dismounted, surveying the chosen camp sight. " I doubt we're safe. I'll keep watch."

She noticed that it seemed no puff of breath escaped from the Hunters lips and into the freezing night air.

"I am not taking second watch. Nor or we stopping tomorrow for you to sleep."

"I don't expect you to. I'll keep watch. The Frontier is not safe."

"Oh," she half laughed, " did you figure that out all on your own? I don't need a hero, so cut the crap."

Again silence prevailed as she began to gather a few twigs into a pile…certainly not enough for a fire, but never the less she rubbed a few of the flimsy sticks together and a moment later a brilliant, flickering fire of blue flames was roaring there. While the flames weren't especially warm D could feel the magical flames were emitting a powerful, and repulsive aura that must have acted like a repellant for the denizens of the Frontier. But she was a woman of no chances it seemed. She took a bow and quiver of incendiary arrows from her horses back and kept them close as she began to consume her solitary meal of roots and bright colored fruits that seemed whimsical even to D's eyes.

The moon at it's apex of it's climb when D at last spoke, "I did not know it was possible for a Nymph to summon the Phoenix."

Shocked at his sudden words she looked up, color flooding her face, " Nor should you…not many of my kind are aware that they have the ability. They waste away their magic. If my kind followed my example instead of trolling about for a fuck than we might be treated like women rather than mindless whores."

'You've mastered your powers well." Said the Hunter, nodding his appreciation.

Her face flushed even brighter, apparently she was aware of the impossibility of such a comment from the Hunter. "Well…thank you. It's not that hard…a Nymph's sole purpose in life is pleasure and to serve the Earth. We can do both through song, when I heal, I sing in the traditional way. Nymphs use song to draw the power of the Earth, and to accelerate healing. When we seduce we can use song as well, but usually we reserve that for rare cases and more often than not our enemies are powerless against that song. They'll do anything we say. So when I defend myself, I sing in the seduction notes…with a hint of pleasure you can make your enemies and your allies do anything. Still you'd be surprised how many Nymphs don't even know how to repel so much as a fly."

"Why waste those powers on a dhampir?" D inquired, again sounding rather disinterested in the words he spoke.

At this the Nymph meet the Hunter's eyes. They'd not yet properly meet since D had drank of her, and upon meeting her bright and doe like eyes even D could not help but to feel the tiniest, heated thread of attraction quiver throughout him.

" Well I am a Healer. I heal regardless of race and blood. After all, it wouldn't be fair of me to judge you when Nymphs are merely half human as well, and we too were created by the Nobility."

"Do you show such devotion to all your causes?" he questioned, faint interest now stirring in his pallid face.

"Well you're not the first dhampir or Nobel I've bled to save if that's what you mean."

She said looking down at her swollen wrist. In the glare of the fire light D noticed that past his bite her skin was covered with cuts, and punctures that had scarred. Ordinarily mortal wounds would have healed without a trace on a Nymph, but these were more than mortal wounds. The sight was strangely tempting to the Hunter. He could not deny he felt that stirring of lust growing brighter deep within him. "But I treat all my patients the same, all life is precious…although I cannot say I would have called the Phoenix for just anyone. You are D, the greatest Hunter who ever lived. I've been hearing legends about you for centuries."

"If all life is precious than I should not be famous." said D, glibly.

Luna's eyes widened at the impact of his gelid words but she did not speak out against them. Perhaps he was right, or perhaps she's merely saved a cold-blooded killer hours ago. Try as she did to wrench her gaze from the killer's beauty she found it quite impossible. Nymphs were no strangers to the beauty of the male form and for this reason they often took husbands that were either elven or Noble. In her immortally Luna had seen the very height of male beauty…but no Fae or Nobel seemed to even touch upon the gorgeous looks of this dhampir. He looked like what the moonlight would be if it had been crystallized and given flesh.

She could not recall ever seeing skin as pale, yet as faultless as his, nor features as angular, narrow and yet perfectly symmetrical. His narrow eyes were fringed with long black lashes; the eyes themselves were like shards of onyx. He wore his raven colored hair in thick waves that cascaded to his waist. His face did not look a day past about 25, but Luna had been hearing his strange name for all her life. He was clothed entirely in black; sheathed in grey amour and an enormous wide brimmed hat was perched atop of his head with a curious red jewel on the side. The only other color about him was the brilliant blue pendant he wore, the jeweled rings on his fingers and the faded red scarf that encircled his neck. All that betrayed his Nobel blood were the sharp points of his ears, and the long, sharp nails adorning his fingertips but she knew well that his vampire nature lay quietly suppressed within him. She's seen his cruel fangs deep in her wrist.

Without really thinking she found herself massaging the wound.

"Come here." His deep voice was somehow extremely soft spoken, even in it's odd detached tone, but somehow it seemed the only voice fitting for such a gorgeous man.

"What?" She breathed, stricken by its suddenness.

"Come here, give me your hand."

She could not suppress a shiver of anticipation as she rose and slipped her hand into the Hunter's graceful one. She sought out his eyes but his interest was only in the wounds on her arm. Oddly enough D raised his left hand, and merely brushed it across the angry, swollen wounds. She felt a sudden chill, and when the Hunter removed his hand she saw that no wound remained at all.

She laughed lightly, "Thank you…you must teach me that one day."

"I can only heal wounds I inflect." He answered flatly.

"I don't suppose your going to tell me the story on your left hand huh? For decades I've heard you've got strange powers centered around it, that you can even use it break through dimensional walls."

But she was hardly surprised when her question was meet with silence. But she was surprised when she saw that his left hand remained softly on hers. Was it a touch of kindness, or merely because he's forgotten to remove it?

She could not help but to feel a jittery surge of affection for the beautiful, albeit icy Hunter at her side. Feeling much like an immature Nymph that had discovered attraction for the first time, she wondered if it might be at all possible if the Hunter might feel some sort of affection toward her.

Instantly Luna was seized with the need of the Nymph and desperately she raised her hands and knocked off the Hunter's enormous hat, bringing his thick hair and gorgeous face fully into the moonlight. She slipped her hands feverishly across his gaunt cheeks, into his silky hair.

"I let you feed your weakness, let me feed mine." She gasped breathless at his moonlit splendor.

D remained quite motionless, 'Do not kiss me." He commanded in his steely tone.

'I won't." she nodded. Apparently he knew well of the Nymph's Curse.

She merely caressed his hair, ravenously drinking in the sight of him, much the way he'd drank of her blood. D could feel the anguish of arousal within the Nymph's form, he could sense it like a writhing serpent of lust twisting it's way through her consciousness, but amazingly the girl did not respond to it. Spurred on by her own temptation D could feel the curse of his own blood beginning to well into his awareness, hunger suddenly pounded in his veins. His gaze was drawn to her slender, pale neck that was quite exposed; her flushed skin was so eager for his kiss. He could feel his fangs beginning to lengthen, his sight grew rose tinted with bloodlust.

But neither of them moved forward.

It was the Nymph that turned away first, but she smiled, undeterred by the blood light shimmering in the dhampir's eyes. "Vampire Hunter D, I think you and I have more in common than you may believe."


	3. Interlude Part One: The First Illusion

**Illusions**

_Note: These Interludes are meant as flashbacks into the strange, and speculative world of D and other characters pasts. _

**Interlude Part One : The First Illusion**

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_"Don't open your eyes, you won't like what you see. The devils of truth steal the souls of the free." - Happiness in Slavery, Nine Inch Nails._

D did not feel the now biting cold as he sat completely still, his eyes casting over the dark landscape, looking quickly toward the sleeping form of the Nymph that lay across the way. She rested fitfully, tossing and turning against the cold and shivering relentlessly but D merely looked past her form, his eyes continually darting about for any foe that might dare to intrude. None dare to show there faces…now they were not the least bit repelled by the Nymph's flickering fire, but the thick, deadly aura that seemed to radiate from the Hunter.

In the quiet of the moment, D allowed his thoughts to drift.

'Feeling contemplative, eh?", spoke a hoarse voice from seemingly nowhere. "Wow so you are…what's the occasion?"

For a moment D was silent, than, his words sounding measured he answered the voice, not looking at its source. "It merely reminded me of _her._ Nothing more."

"Ohh! Her! Why is that you never just call your parents Mommy or Daddy? Well…let me see, this shall be interesting!" replied the voice, faintly amused.

As though obeying the symbiote, D let his eyes close, and while his consciousness remained wholly on his unpredictable surroundings, his thoughts strayed backward, focused deep on the now hazy depths of his earliest memories…

* * *

_D was six when he first saw the veiled doorway between life and death. His body lay drained, broken and forgotten in the road to a nearby village, while his senses drifted to that strange, formless land of mist._

_It had started out as nothing more than a mere errand for his mother. Mina the Fair was a name that few knew any longer, now the villages they traveled to over the years knew her only as Mina, a strange and shy woman whose beauty was almost bewitching. Yet she was a good and modest woman and especially skilled at healing. And she was as devoted a mother as one could ever have to that strange, quite son of hers. The child didn't even have a proper name…what sort name was "D" the villagers would whisper._

_On this day, Mina had asked her son to go into town to purchase her some chamomile flowers from the apothecary. Naturally D had protested, a scowl marking his cherubic face. "I hate going outside! The blasted sun hurts my skin and I hate talking to those idiots in the village! I hate the way they stare at me!" _

_Mina sighed impatiently, putting aside her sewing. "D, that cannot be helped. The sun hurts you because you don't go outside enough, and if you talked more with the villagers you would find them quite lovely people. They only stare because they do not know you."_

"_NO!" he answered in firm defiance._

"_Don't be difficult with me Dracula, now go!" a shadow of pain crossed her face as she spoke._

_Indeed D blinked in astonishment, then hanging his head he turned to leave. She only used his full name when she was serious about something…and always that pained look crossed her fair face. He couldn't bear to see that expression. "And don't you dare drink while you're out there D! I'll know if you do and so will God!" she called back, a wild tone in her voice._

_Shuffling his feet the whole way, and wrapping himself tightly in his cloak D trudged angrily to town. Every place the rays of light pierced his bare skin felt like little beams of white-hot fire were being driven into his flesh. "Why doesn't she just understand!" he growled angrily, peering down at his left hand…but there was no face resting within it. "Sun hurts. And I don't want to eat. I just want to bite animals! I like blood, I don't know why but I do! It tastes real…not like dust. That's what food and all that tastes like to me! Blood doesn't make me sick. She says I am just sick, and she'll find a cure for me…but I think I was born like this or something!" he kept on, looking hard at his hand._

_For as long as he could remember D fancied that he did have a friend that didn't disappoint him, fear him and lie to him the way all others did…but that friend seemed imaginary, and it lived in his left hand. Part of D believed so firmly that the little voice inside of his head wasn't his imagination but his friend. He fully expected to one-day see the face of his friend in his own palm._

"_HEY!" a gruff voice then called out from behind him. D whirled about shocked to see three teenaged boys were standing across the road, he must have been so lost in thought that he'd failed to hear them approach._

"_Want to know what you are punk?" sneered one of the boys with untidy brown hair._

"_You're a leech…you're a godamned fucking dhampir! I guess "Mommy" is too scared to tell you that, huh?" the biggest of the boy growled, slowly approaching D. _

"_Dhampir…what's a dhampir?" said D, his face bright with confusion._

"_It's a bastard!" one of the boys laughed, "the spawn of a Nobel and a whore!" _

'_A Nobel?" D questioned blankly._

"_We don't want your filthy, blood sucking kind in our town, dhampir!" the biggest boy raged. In his confusion D never saw the first stone that struck him right between the eyes. He hissed with the sting, but showed no other sign of pain. The other stones the boys scraped from the ground and hurled at him he did see, and instantly his hand flew up and snatched each out of the air. All ten of them._

"_Wha….you FUCKING FREAK!" one of the teenagers screamed, "Come on, lets fuck him up!"_

_In the next moment all three of the bulky boys slammed directly into the child…but amazingly, he stood stone still beneath their assault, his feet only moved back with the force of their combined weight. More curses rang out through the air and again and again their fists flew at the child, and he made no attempt to dodge them, but he hardly felt them raining upon his skin. D twisted away from the mass of muscle, and began to run, but before he could release a burst of his unreal speed, the boy with the wild dark hair seized his arm and a knife flashed in the sunlight. Suddenly D fell weakly to his knees, clutching his throat and looking helplessly down at the torrent of vivid red blood that was spilling down onto the ground. His hand could feel the awful slash across his throat… than it seemed as if all resistance he had against their attack was broken. The three boys kicked him mercilessly down into he dust, slamming their feet and their stones anywhere they could. Helplessly D tried to curl into a fetal position, but two of the boys held him by the arms and legs, and stretched him out. The biggest boy had a stake of wood in his hands. Instinctively D began to shriek out for mercy but the sound came out only as a strangled gasp. He watched the wood slam down into his chest, and he didn't even utter a cry at the fiery agony that radiated throughout his body and he fell into blackness._

_The boys however had missed his heart, just barely, and hours passed as D flitted through consciousness, impulsively mustering his strength to pull free the stake and crawl out of the bite of the sunlight and into shade, but otherwise he was unable to move. His vulnerable body had not yet mastered the powers of healing that he would have in his adulthood, it was far to shocked by the loss of blood and massive wounds he'd suffered. Each time D closed his eyes against the sunlight he would see it…the veil between the worlds, yet it would not part for him._

_He was unconscious when Mina found him, broken and almost bloodless on the side of the road, he would have cringed at the shriek that welled from her lips, the cry of a Mother whose worse fears had been confirmed._

_Strangely enough as she knelt over the pitiful form of her son, she first took his left hand and turned it palm up. She started hard at the tiny hand, "Where are you! Show yourself…Ytfel PLEASE!" she cried out frantically, a helpless tear cascaded down her face. __**He'd**__ said that the symbiote would likely remain dormant until manhood…that until then D would be vulnerable, like any other dhampir._

_She trembled, and from her cloak she pulled free a small dagger, her whole body seemed to tremble in protest to what she was about to do, her face was a mask of revolution, but her eyes remained only on her son…her perfect, gorgeous son that looked more cherubic than any human child could possibly appear. Never was there a more faultless child than him…save for this one, very definitive imperfection. _

_Wincing she drew the dagger hard across her wrists, and as the bright crimson rivulet welled from the wound she laid it against his swollen lips. Instantly D gained consciousness, his dark eyes flew open, a crimson fire dancing in the irises and greedily he latched onto her wrists, tiny cat like fangs hooking easily into her flesh. _

"_I am sorry! I am so sorry D!" she sobbed vehemently, caressing his wild curls of hair, suppressing gasps of pain. "I should have told you….I shouldn't fight it…" her words collapsed into tears as her son tore deeper and deeper into her veins. She howled like a woman who had lost everything she'd ever held dear. She'd dared to believe she'd created the perfect illusionary dream for D to blossom in…up until now…now he had to know what he was. _

* * *

"Hahaha, ah yes, Mother dearest." A gruff voice snapped D from his thoughts. "Strange girl, miss Mina Murray the Fair. Granted I wasn't around her as long as you where, but there are times when I can't help but to wonder if she resented you more than she ever loved you. I mean poor thing…all she wanted was a simple life, and then she found herself in love with the Vampire King that forced her to watch as he killed her children…until you come along…the perfect child that had a few to many teeth for breast feeding. But all the poor girl wanted was a nice, human child to scream into the night, shit it's pants, and writhe about helplessly for a year. She never…."

"Shut up!" D hissed and clenched his hand so hard that blood began to run down between his trembling fingers.

Once again focused only on the shivering woman in the darkness and thought of nothing more.


	4. Chapter 4: Warmth

Illusions

**Chapter Four: Warmth**

_"I can't feel my senses, I just feel the cold. All colors seem to fade away, I can't reach my soul." -Frozen, Within Temptation._

As usual D did not sleep that night, nor did the Nymph for that matter. It seemed the sector of Frontier they'd entered played host to a faulty weather controller and the winter was almost constant here. It did not matter how tightly the Nymph curled in her blankets, the simple fact was that these beings were not meant to know cold. As dawn broke the Nymph sat up with a sigh, and rubbed her sleep-deprived eyes.

"I haven't been this far North before, I hadn't planned on going this far. I suppose this is the only time I ever miss my colony…when the cold strikes. Everything was so comforting and warm there…like the cold was afraid to touch us." She said more to herself than to the silent Hunter that was gathering her few belongings and strapping them back on the golden colored horse. "I left them three years ago. I was sick of the meaningless life I was expected to lead. And after 12 marriages and no happiness I was growing quite bored. I wanted to help those in need. It's lonely, but I would choose it all over again." She said conversationally, this time rather nettled, as D didn't even appear to hear her words.

"Well how about you D? How did you get into Hunting? You've certainly been alone much longer than I have."

Still no answer, She laughed helplessly, "You don't talk much do you?"

"No." was his stoic answer.

'Very well then." She said with a shrug. Without further comment she mounted the horse behind the Hunter, and they began to ride again. This time she did not seem to hesitate in wrapping her arms lightly about his waist.

An hour or two passed in silence when the girls head fell onto the Hunters broad, armored shoulder and she slept soundly this time, pressing close into him, seeking the Hunter as shelter from the biting cold. D responded by slowing the horses pace slightly.

"You know….you could give the girl something to talk about." said a gruff voice seemed to erupt from seemingly nowhere. D released his left hand from the horse's mane and stared impassively at the wizened little face that appeared in his palm. "You know it cannot be easy for the poor thing, to be a Nymph, and to be all alone in the cold. Nymphs are highly social, something that would not kill you once in a while."

"Its not my duty to entertain Nymphs." He replied.

"Oh ho ho ho! Well alright then, but do I need to remind you that it was _you _that chose to…ah…entertain, this young lady, as you call it. _"I doubt we are safe." _HA! What a load of bullshit D, we both now that we've left the manticore at least 40 miles behind." The symbiote pressed, laughing.

"We are still a day or more from the nearest village. She had a horse. I do not intend to walk."

"Oh bull-fucking-shit D! You know that I CAN see into your thoughts when I want to…I know all your actions and what little passes for your emotions. You LIKE this girl. You're drawn to her because she doesn't need your company. And lets face it, what's not to like? She's got an ass I'd like to pound like bongo drum, and a nice set of tits to match!" the symbiote laughed again, licking it's jagged mouth obscenely, "Not to mention she's a Nymph. She'll fuck a tree if she found a cock shaped branch, come on, you're as good as laid D if you'll just show her some kindness once and a while. And hell do you ever need to get laid; it's been what…a hundred years since you've even beaten the old snake. No wonder you're so downright unpleasant…"

"That's enough." He snarled shortly.

"Just let me feel that lovely ass of hers. Come on, think about ME for once D. And have some compassion for the girl…"

"Why? She's only a Nymph, I doubt she's interested in compassion. According to you she interested only in "cock shaped branches". I'll find her a tree."

"Oh…oh now you're a real bastard, you know that? You judge her for her heritage. Well look at you Mr. Genetically Perfect Son of _Dracula._"

"Do you wish for the saddlebag?" replied D, his voice still calm, but deadly cruel. Cutting off the offending parasite and storing it in his saddlebag until the limb promised to hold his tongue was a not at all uncommon occurrence.

At this threat the parasite grumbled and disappeared, leaving only D's palm in its wake.

At mid-day the Nymph woke and D felt weariness creeping into his actions, but he merely pushed past it, and road onward. She seemed respectful of his silence, and indeed no more words were spoke until they had again made camp, and D spoke merely to inform her that they would reach the village tomorrow. With no further words she repeated her ritual of making the fire, eating and then curled up into her thick quilt.

D sat down beside the fire, laid his sword across his lap, and began to listen to the soft symphony of the night about him. He could hear the plaintive cry of demon women luring travelers into their clutches, the chirp of crickets, the buzzing of lightening beetles that electrocuted any prey they could get, but above all he focused on the soft whisper of the wind that whipped about the Frontier. The ability to understand the wind has been with D for as long as his memory stretched back, he could recall pausing to hear its song and understand near every word of it's song. It whispered to him in lyrical gasps, howls and sighs. After the appearance of the symbiote it seemed it's language had grown even clearer.

Now the gathering gale was speaking rather frivolously of the occurrences of fairies, and while D had little interest in the subject he did not tune out the voice. It was the Hunter's sole connection to beauty in this vast and harsh world. A rather strong gust swept across the Frontier, it was laden with the promise of the snow and from the corner of his eye he saw the sleeping girl give a violent shiver and curl tighter.

He felt it then…a stabbing sort of pain in the pit of his stomach…could it have been sympathy for the girl?

_You've become stone young Hunter. With each passing moment, you meld into ice: solid and unchanging. _The wind whispered in his ear. _When was the last time you helped the helpless for no gain of your own?_

"I don't know." He answered in truth, "why not help the girl, and withdraw your bite?"

_You help her._ It answered; its hushed and sexless voice was rankled with indignation, than it was gone from his perception. It seemed the wind now howled harder, growing chill and moist with the foreboding of winter. He only watched as the sleeping Nymph shivered violently beneath her feeble protection from the cold, moaning in half alert misery.

"Come on…"another voice spoke up, this one from his Left Hand, "It won't kill you D. Be a gentleman and comfort the lady."

He didn't move.

"When did you get this way! Damn it D…I can see your memories you know, you had a childhood, you had friends, and a mother! You loved her even if she was hurt and confused, you gave her flowers every birthday…and you had lovers! Why did you get this way, it's been so long since you've cared for someone…anyone! Even me, I am just your lousy talking hand in your eyes. Why has it come down to this?"

"It's all lie." D hissed, "every moment I've ever felt kindness. It was tainted. It was a hollow illusion. Hunting is all I know now. I won't live in this world. I'll merely defend it."

"Well than what's worth fighting for! Huh? Have you ever through about that! I hate to break it you pretty boy, but your falling apart at the seams. You can't take it any longer…all this hunting and never finding a moments peace. Your aging, you're slowing down. And why? Because you deny yourself everything that is real, that is beautiful! All you ever know is misery!" the hand suddenly raged, than in disgust disappeared from sight.

D sighed as he turned his eyes on the girl. How was it that her simple presence had caused so much anger in his direction? He smiled, as though in faint amusement, thinking that if any human were around to see the situation they would think it most odd that the wind and his left hand were irritated with him.

But perhaps they were right…D could not recall the last time he'd known this annoying little thread of sympathy, the last truly strong emotion he'd felt break through his rocky exterior. And it was true…over the past few years he'd seen that he was slowing down, his reflexes were weakening. In the hazy reflection that mirrors provided him he did notice faint lines about his forehead that had not been there a hundred years ago.

Perhaps it was because of this reason that he stood, and faced the shivering girl, as if this single act of compassion might stop the aging process he so dreaded. He moved toward her so slowly one might have never believed he was a dhampir, and eventually he kneeled at the sleeping Nymphs side, his face creased with confusion and body poised with the awkwardness of the situation.

The Hunter found himself thinking of a moment that was now more than 500 years past, when he had come across a gorgeous female Hunter that had been wounded in battle. As infection and chills raged her body D had thoughtlessly torn off her clothes and held her to his own body for warmth, had kept her alive. Thinking of that young Hunter from centuries ago brought a wave of undeniable sadness to D's consciousness. She's been a woman he'd cared for, a woman he'd saved from both death and the relentless life of Hunting. Every so often he'd kept an eye out for Leila Marcus, smiling slightly as he saw her life bloom with blessings. He'd even attended her funeral, although he remained distant from the rest of the mourners.

This memory filled D with courage. It allowed him the strength he needed to perform the simple action of laying down beside the Nymph, and gingerly wrapping an arm about her waist.

"What…." Luna groaned her eyes snapping open, searching about for danger than filling with disbelief when she found D's arm wrapped about her.

"You…you seemed cold…" his voice croaked with nervousness.

"I…I am." She answered, smiling and she reached up to brush away a tendril of his long, black hair. She wrapped her arms tightly about him, pressing close into the line of his body, as he pulled his cloak tightly about the both of them. "Your so warm." She mused burying her face against his neck.

The feeling was completely alien…holding a woman in his arms, and not resisting her touch. When had been the last time he'd willingly held anyone? As strange as the feeling was it had a curious thread of intoxication, perhaps it was the smoothness of her skin against his fingers than knew only the leather of reins and the steel of his sword. Her own fingers wound through his hair, and soon her breathing grew still and calm against his neck. D did not intend to follow her into slumber, but no sooner did he resolve to stay awake did a combination of weariness, and the drugging warmth of their embrace take him victim. D held the girl closer to his chest, closed his eyes and slept, one gaunt cheek resting against the girls hair.

In the dead of the freezing night it seemed as if D's left hand rose independently of his body, and moved from the girls shoulder to rest against the curve of her backside. "Oh yes!" laughed a gruff voice from seemingly nowhere.


	5. Chapter 5: Surrender

_**Illusions**_

**Chapter Five: Surrender**

_"I want...I want you. What'll it take for you to surrender? I gave you a taste, oh how you've grown. This great trial, this self denial..." -Again, Again and Again. Blaqk Audio_

"_Crash into my arms, I want you. You don't agree but you don't refuse. I know you. " Jack the Ripper, Morrissey _

* * *

They road hard the next morning toward the village but their efforts quickly become futile. Late that morning the first few snowflakes began to drift from the sky, delicate and beautiful at first. But within the hour the snow was howling about the landscape, drowning everything in a haze of fierce white. The Fae horse began to panic in the unfamiliar precipitation, and despite D's utter mastery over the equine, he pushed it no further. Even his keen eyes were becoming useless in the maelstrom. A mere three miles from the town and he was forced to give up in his effort.

A hint of frustration showed through in his gorgeous face as he leapt off the horse and turned to help the Nymph off, 'We'll walk the rest of the way."

Now shock crossed his features as he offered his hand to the girl, she seemed frozen solid to the horse, hunched pitifully beneath her handmade quilt. Ice and snow clung to her hair and eyelashes; her lips had turned blue and her skin as milk white as D's flesh. But the girl's head turned and she made to take his hand; the sight was surreal even to the Hunter, almost as if an ice sculpture had been given a single breath of life. Instinctively D easily gathered the freezing girl into his arms and lay her down on the snowy ground. He stripped off his cape and wrapped it tight about her. The Nymph merely lay weakly, looking as if she wanted to protest this type of treatment but could not attempt the words.

He pressed his left hand to the Nymph's brow, "How bad is it?" he asked.

"Well D, these Nymphs just aren't designed for the cold. Can't say the Nobility ever figured one to be out in the middle of the Frontier, alone. Only two things kill them, poison and prolonged time in extreme cold." Said a familiar hoarse voice, "She's just dazed for now, but give her another four hours and she'll be an ice sculpture. Please tell me your going to do something about this."

"I have a idea." He answered the symbiote dismissively and he turned his eyes to the golden hued horse that stood stubbornly amidst the blizzard. There was a moment's hesitation, before D stepped toward the beast, his vision becoming a haze of crimson. The Fae beast saw the blood light shimmering in his eyes, screamed in panic and bucked wildly in the snow drifts but D moved with speed that defied sight. He seized the beast by it's mane, as his eyes rolled as though mad back into his skull, his jaws opened wide revealing four immense, pearl white fangs, and holding the beast in his steely grip he bit down into it's thick, muscled neck. Hot blood welled and flowed passed his lips, and again he groaned with almost carnal fulfillment. He marveled at the way the succulent liquid seemed to roll like wine across his tongue and to course through his body, filling him with life, heat and immeasurable strength. He remained only at the wound for a minute or two until he released the protesting horse. D almost collapsed onto the snowy ground, panting and lightheaded with contentment.

"Ohh…oh holy shit D! That was like water after years in the desert…ohhh FUCK that was delicious!" said the symbiote, expressing his thoughts perfectly, "much better than that crap you drink to survive."

Perhaps 200 years had passed since he'd had a drop of living blood…up until Luna's sacrifice, up until now. He forced himself to survive on blood and protein caplets that gave dhampirs the nutrients they need to survive, but it wasn't the succulent wine the Nobility so craved. Yet he'd lost even his caplets in his defeat, D had come to the realization that sooner or later he would need blood; months might pass before he could get more caplets on a short notice. But he was not the one who needed to survive now

.

D felt his skin growing flushed, and heated as the beasts' blood coursed through him.

That was when he returned to Luna, and without hesitation took the girl into his embrace and held her there tightly, flush with the glowing warmth of his body. There was no particular reason he stroked her icy hair with his left hand, he wasn't even fully aware he was doing so. A long while passed before the girl's arms moved to cling tight to him, and another few minutes later her eyes lifted and meet the Hunter's.

"I'll be okay." She shivered pitifully. "You don't need to do this. I doubt the cold will kill me." She added trying to sound nonchalant.

"I think different. And I told you, I am in debt to you." He answered stoically, "Besides, it is not in my nature to let damsel remain in distress."

With this the Nymph almost laughed…perhaps it was a vague notion of humor on D's part. She could not help but to notice that it seemed none of the wild flakes clung to D's hair, or seemed to bare touch his skin for longer than a mere second. As if it were loathe to marring his beauty, or perhaps even the snow was repealed by the cursed blood in his veins. "I think that you're just starting to like me a little." The Nymph smiled, laying back onto his armored chest. "You know there are other things we can do to keep warm."

"I can assure you that you would wind up disappointed and colder than before." D answered, although Luna could have sworn his disinterest sounds almost feigned.

She did not see that even with the horses' blood coursing wildly through out his body, D's gaze fell hungrily down to her pale neck. She took no notice of the fact that he'd brushed aside her lengthy tresses to bring its enticement fully in view.

* * *

It was hours before the worst on the storm passed, but still the horse remained stubborn, thus the pair set up camp early. Luna sighed with frustration, and pulled her quilt and D's cape tighter about herself as she ferreted through her saddlebags unable to find a spare scrap of food. Clearly she'd taken this journey through this sector without care. As D's hand fell on her shoulder she did not feel panic, but rather a wave of undeniable desire that she tried desperately to conceal as she turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"There is a small band of travelers camped not far to the east. It isn't much, but I negotiated for some food for you." said D, and held out a small bag.

Inside the sack Luna found a few almost overripe apples, and orange and a small pomegranate. "Oh, D, thank you!" she cried, trying to keep the flush from her face. Of course D would not know that offering a Nymph gifts of fruits was considered a token of love, and that being offered a pomegranate was said to be an omen of passionate love.

She sat down onto the snow and took out an apple, and bit into it. A moment later she split the pomegranate in half and offered one of the halves to D. "Do you mind? I know it's silly to offer fruit to a dhampir but we believe it's terrible luck to eat a pomegranate alone, it might place a curse of eternal loneliness on me."

A wry smiled crossed the Hunter's lips, and he took the half and sat down across from the Nymph. "Your kind seem strange to me, not many races still live amongst the Earth, and honor it. There is beauty in your ways."

She beamed, "Well, thank you. I know all about dhampirs and Nobel's of course…their looks makes them popular choices for husbands' among my people, although I never married one. The ways of the Nobel and the dhampir can be as beautiful as their appearance, and as cruel, yet you…you I just don't understand. You seem removed from both human and Nobel, but greater than both. You have no ties, no roots, no origin." The Nymph spoke bemusedly.

"Sounds like something my father-dearest would say." Replied a voice that rougher than D's.

'Oh? So you have a father?" she said, brushing aside the strange tone of his voice.

He met her eyes fiercely, and he clinched his left hand tightly. Luna stammered, clearly she'd hit a raw nerve, 'Well…I um…I only meant that we've been traveling together for two days now, and I still don't even know your name."

"My name is D." he answered evenly, his voice normal now, " My mother called me D. It's my name."

"Wow, a mother and a father. Mr. Mysterious Dhampir is starting to become more complex." Luna grinned, and bit down on some of the fleshy seeds of the pomegranate, taking a moment to savor the rich taste. D noticed that droplets of the crimson juice ran down past her lips, looking so much like blood. Her beauty seemed heightened. "Eat." She said motioning toward the fruit D still held.

"I don't eat."

She only laughed, "Stop bullshitting me, D. I know very well you can eat a few seeds just as well as I can. I told you; it's bad luck to not share a pomegranate. That's the last thing we need."

"It won't kill you."

"Neither will showing some compassion once in a while." She nettled lightly.

With a rather defeated and dramatic sigh D took a few seeds from the fleshy fruit and placed them in his mouth. Much to his shock he found that the taste to be deliciously sweet and tart upon his tongue, he'd grown so used to all solid food, and most juices to wind up tasting like terrible bitter to his palate.

"Come…tell me more about yourself D. Were where you born? Why did you choose to become a Hunter? How old are you?"

"9,568." He replied dismissively.

Luna gasped out at the figure, "Wow…and here I am only 1,098. Practically a toddler by your standards."

"I set out to become what I have became at 19. Things were mostly quite, until that age."

For a moment Luna listened with rapt attention, hoping that the Hunter might divulge more, but he again fell silent and ate a few more of the seeds. Luna followed his example.

Perhaps it was the intoxicating taste of the fruit that urged her to reach out and to take the Hunter's hand into her own. His fingers were rough and calloused by millennia of sword hilts and leather reigns. But he did not refuse her touch; she found his coal black eyes.

"They say that the pomegranate is the fruit of seduction. Of desire. Tell me D, when was the last time you felt desire?" she almost moaned with need.

"I don't know." He answered simply, unsure of why he'd answered the question at all.

But he did not feel the usual resistance he normally did when women approached him with such ardor. Was it merely her unnatural beauty? Was it a spell of sorts the Nymph had woven over him? Or was it mere respect that this young immortal had, like him, abandoned her culture, and chose solitude? Was that she too struggled with her blood curse?

She moved closer, her voice was a low, husky whisper. A veritable siren call. "What will it take for you to surrender, D?"

D said nothing, but he to found himself leaning closer to the Nymph. He theorized it must have been her beauty combined with the sweet taste of the pomegranates, and heedlessly he took a few more of the seeds, but raised them not to his lips but to Luna's. She gladly accepted the offering, lightly sucking on his calloused fingers in a suggestive manner.

D's eyes were now locked onto the Nymphs green ones. He saw the fire that burned there, as need began to uncoil through out his body. It was need to feel the solidity of her skin beneath his lonely and pitiless fingertips, need to simply feel, if only for a moment, the embrace of another, need to merely collapse into her arms, weak and powerless.

"D…" he heard the Nymph's suddenly operatic voice, but his vision had grown hazy. As though he were peering through a distorted crystal ball he saw the image of a dark haired, matronly woman in a snowy white gown, her head hung low and her sobs broken and shaking her form. "D…" Mina moaned, "D…you must be strong for me. You cannot let it happen again…don't let him come back. You must be strong. You cannot crack for a single second." She reached out and lovingly stroked a tendril of his dark hair, the haze than faded and it was the Nymph that had reached out to caress his hair.

"Let yourself be free D. Just once, surrender. You don't always need to be strong." She purred, but she did not move any closer to him.

D knew well that she'd just employed some Nymph devilry of temptation to summon the memory from within him, and attempted to creep into his stony interior. Naturally resistance was building with him, but one simple fact stilled his refusal.

While this creature of seduction could have so easily broke through all of his defenses and pressed her lips to his, and thus sealed her spell, she did not. That power remained solely with D.

Only for a moment did he resist her call. Than he lifted his hand and buried it in her hair, leaned little by little into her embrace and touched his lips firmly onto hers. Instantly the two were seized with a gripping sensation that tugged at their hearts, and seemed to pull their bodies closer into the others embrace, fueling their kiss. The Heart Bind. The Nymph's Curse.

Each moaned in soft elation, their lips melded together as if they were the only two humans…or rather half humans that were left within this frozen world about them. It was a full minute before D parted only to shift even deeper into her embrace and kiss her again. He distantly recalled that it might have been three hundred or more years since he'd willingly given a kiss, but in the heat of the moment any awkwardness of the act was pushed far from his mind. He wrapped his left hand tightly around her waist (vaguely hearing a hoarse voice shout with encouragement.) and parted her lips with his own. Lightly their tongues touched and tangled. A ripple of excitement ran through D's body as Luna wound her arms around his neck, and pressed ever closer to him, moving into his lap. The snow that drifted lightly past them, the frozen world that tried it's best to seep through their clothing now held no meaning for the two as they locked in their passionate embrace.

It was D that laid Luna down into the snow so that there bodies could arc even closer to the other, and their kisses could deepen. D kissed her with all the ferocity of a beast, yet somehow with the tenderness of a lover. The feel of his brutal fangs was undeniable now, but it could not be helped. It was simply a fact of biology that any sign of arousal on those with Nobel blood was accompanied by showing their true visage. Naturally no fear crept through the Nymph's body, rather she ran her hands down his long and slender body and sought out another sign of his arousal. She despaired when she found only the light weight titanium that encased him from head to toe and inwardly cursed the armor that made his embrace so detached and rough. Only the near desperate way he tasted her lips, and the way the Hunter's wild hair fell forward to curtain her face gave evidence to the fact that somewhere, deep within that defensive exterior he was yearning to know her touch.

'Come out that shell, D." she said, her voice in that same operatic siren call. "Let me hold you."

Obediently he parted from her lips, and began to unhinge and unbuckle his armor.

Eagerly she helped him; soon he remained only in his in only his tunic and boots, his sword laid carefully at his right side. Once free of the armor he fervently fell back to her waiting lips.

A sob threatened to betray the Nymph. A dozen husbands…a thousand lovers…and yet she could never recall ever meeting a man as gorgeous as this Hunter, nor as soulful, intriguing, and even fragile beneath his rigid exterior. Slowly, and only briefly she'd torn away his defenses. She could now glimpse upon the magnificent, yet frightened soul beneath the sword and the fangs. Flashes of scenery, faces and towns she did not know flickered momentarily before her eyes, but only one emotion was overwhelming apparent within these disjointed images. Crushing, and willful solitude.

Luna then felt the hint she'd been waiting patiently for, as D's hands moved from her face and down to explore the curves of her form, resting momentarily longer at her breast, and ever so slowly his lips followed the path of his hands. She wasted no time in pushing her hands through his tunic and discovered the hard and muscled planes of his body. Those muscles were so ridged, yet smooth to the touch it seems almost as if she were caressing a work of art. D's hands followed her example, pushing up the skirt of her modest tunic up her thighs. With almost predatory instance he used his left hand to yank the her vine woven straps down and cupped a breast with his immense and graceful hand, and explored the other with his mouth, carefully biting down on her hardened nipple. A wild moan escaped her and Luna grew dizzy with lust. D's fangs had freed the tiniest droplet of blood from her. The blood was superheated with arousal, yet easily enough he fought back the desire to tear deeper into her sacred flesh. The Nymph's body arced as he lightly increased the pressure, stimulated the hardened point with his tongue. By now his other hand had moved up her thighs, found its way to where she craved him the most, yet he teased her only with the softest of touches. She almost shrieked out in fervor as he bit down firm upon her breast again, than assuaged her tender skin with his tongue.

She allowed her hands to come into contact with the aroused length of him, loving the awkward pant it freed from him as she reached inside of his clothing to touch him directly. D tried hard to focus his attentions only on her, but having the Nymph touching the part of himself that he'd spent much of his immortality denying became an utterly drugging sensation, and he soon abandoned his affections and focused only on the peculiar waves of pleasure that were quickly radiating through his body.

He allowed her to roll him over onto his back. She unlaced his tunic and began to kiss down the pallid and utterly perfect skin she found beneath, with agonizing slowness she made her way down to where D was now yearning for her attention. He could not help but to feel a hint of annoyance when she glanced upon his nakedness, and gasped out in pleasant shock smoothing her hands down his sufficient length. Of course he'd been designed to be aesthetically pleasing to the female eye, but more often than not D found the few lovers he dare took were too distracted by his physical appearance to forge any true passion with him. But soon enough any reservations he held were soon pushed from his mind as the Nymph dragged her lips down and began to caress, than take his aching lust into her mouth. All to soon he found himself reaching the peaks of ecstasy, and possessively he laced his hands through her hair and thrust in rhythm with her own movements. The broken gasps and moans that welled from D did even sound like his own voice. It seemed almost like nothing remained of D…not his distance, his silence, or his lineage even if that remained glaringly apparent through his fangs. All that mattered to him now was this rapture.

Faintly he heard that Luna had begun to moan almost in rhythm with him. He could vaguely recall hearing a rumor long ago that Nymphs were so drawn to the pleasures of the flesh because when they gave pleasure, their minds melded with their lovers and the pleasure they gave became pleasure they received.

Only one thing was missing from this rapturous moment, one thing that barred D from the highest peaks of pleasure. Her mind was now connected to his and Luna knew what that barrier was, and without the slightest hesitation she moved her hand up onto his chest, as if in offering to him. Any will D had to resist this sacred offering was long ago cast to the wind, and ruthlessly he took her hand, and with a snarl he drove his fangs deeply into her wrist. The shriek that rose from her was not of pain, but of pleasure, and it came in perfect time with D's own fulfilled gasp. The moment her frenzied blood touched his tongue his loins burned with ecstasy, and that passion had been the Nymph's as well. He whimpered feebly, panting as he lapped at her wound, than was unable to even breathe as the peak of his ecstasy exploded, his body convulsing beneath the spell of her lips. Luna accepted his seed without revolution, her own body trembling with him.

D lay his head back down into the snow, panting hard and lightly tracing his tongue across the delicious wounds on her wrist. His exhaustion was shared with the Nymph as well who wearily moved to lie down on his chest, pulling his cape tightly across their bared skin. She did not pull her wrist away, and allowed the dhampir to lightly suck at the wound until it ran dry.

This was one of the reasons D rarely allowed himself the pleasures of the flesh. Not only did a vampire's true face show with their arousal, but it was almost necessary for blood to be shed in order for a Nobel or dhampir to reach orgasm.

He again placed his left hand across the wound and all trace of them vanished. Luna's eyes rose to meet his, the green was glazed with enchantment and drawn to their heated gaze D pushed back a lock of her hair and kissed her.

Even D's unworldly constitution was not immune to the rush of endorphins that flooded him. Soon he lay still and calm in the snow, still holding the Nymph that had followed him into slumber in his arms.


	6. Chapter 6: Binds

**Illusions**

**Chapter Six: Binds**

* * *

_"I'll stand forever, and love whatever breaks my heart." - Semiotic Love, Blaqk Audio_

The grayish light had left the sky when Luna awoke. She sat up from D's arms, keeping his cape tight about her. She blinked, then smiled as she saw that sky above had burst wide and a dazzling display of stars and moonlight were now spanned across the heavens. She looked down at the dhampir that still slumbered in the snow and was unable to know which sight she found the most enchanting.

"Yes, yes…gorgeousness and all that now listen to me girl!" A hoarse voice spoke. The voice sounded almost like D's if he had pained throat. It sounded just like the voice that had mentioned a father.

She tensed and faced D fully, but the Hunter's eyes were still closed, his face was still serene and almost contemplative, with no sign of waking. She could not see, hear, nor sense anyone else around the camp.

"Over here…" said the seemingly disembodied voice, than D's left hand rose from it's place in snow. It was almost disturbing, the way his arm seemed to move as through independent of his body, she could see something dark nestled in the palm of his hand.

The palm moved so that the moonlight struck it fully, and within the palm of D's hand, was not an object, but a miniature, and wizened human face. "Hi there." The face grinned as though utterly amused by her shock, its thin and jagged lips curving up in a smile.

The Nymph's eyes grew as wide as saucers as she gasped wildly and twisted away from D, kicking up snow and stumbling in her haste to flee, but she did not scream. A moment later she paused, then spoke to the miniature countenance. "What…how…you…" she stuttered.

"Pleased to meet you to. Left Hand is what I tend to go by, but I am rather fond of Lefty. Now no more introductions, I have Pretty Boy knocked out pretty good, but I can't keep it up."

"You…your killing him!" the Nymph gasped, fear touching her voice for only a moment before resolve steeled her eyes and she spoke again, her voice clear and operatic. "Go! Detach your self from him and leave…"

"Woah woah now!" said the parasite, waving D's hand about rather comically, "Now none of that Nymph commanding - singing stuff. I am not just any countenanced carbuncle, you see. I was born with old Pretty Boy here, and seeing as we've been together about 9,500 years I don't think I'll be killing him any time soon, although he certainly deserves a few good swift kicks in the ass. But instead I just have to save his ass every time he screws up."

Luna blinked, stricken. Her voice was harsh with disbelief. "Born with him…how can that be? Your kind always just consume your victims."

'Well you see that is why I like you, girlie, we've got that much in common. I rejected that way of life about ten thousand years ago. Started thinking that I must have a bigger purpose in life than to just leech on others. So I began to consume elements, learning my powers and limits out side of leeching and then I found Pretty Boy's daddy. You could call him a bit of a mad scientist I suppose…he experimented on any living creature he could find. But his deepest ambition was to create an heir…create the perfect dhampir. The perfect dhampir had to be completely immortal, resist bloodlust unlike any other, and able to sense and do things that others cannot…and that were I came in. Old Dracs wanted a sort of life force generator in the palm of his dhampir's hand, so he perfected me than joined me with the boy's genetics. Now enough back-story, listen to me!" said D's hand as it edged closer.

Now convinced but nonetheless shocked Luna nodded. She'd seen sights far less shocking than a talking hand, but that didn't make it any less surreal.

"Alright then…now I hate to break it to you, but as soon as this "stud" (and here the hand even made air mark quotations.) wakes up I know the first thing that's going to happen. He's going to pretend like nothing ever happened between you. You'll reach town and he'll ride off in the sunset, without even a goodbye and probably wearing that stupid smile that I hate worse than his ridiculous hat. I know this, I've been his hand for 9,000 years, and he never changes."

But Luna merely nodded at the symbiote words, "Yes…I know that."

"Don't you let it happen! You hear me, DON'T!" the hand shouted so loudly that she cringed. "I am sick and tired of it. I mean…D…he's just nothing now! A sheet of wallpaper has more life than this boy. I am sick of being worked like a dog, and I can't stand to see him falling apart like this! I mean…he is technically my twin, and I care for him even though he treats me like shit. As the years go by he's aging some, and withdrawing even more into himself, more from the world. 9,549 years of this is enough!

You know his last employer, he didn't even speak more than two words to!"

"Well…" the Nymph blinked suddenly stricken with the strangeness of the fact that his Left Hand had just spoken more to her than D himself ever had. "Uhh…. well what can I do about it?"

"I don't know…but please, just try. The Heart Bind isn't going to be anywhere near enough…he's breaking through it already. You've got to make him stay. Take a moment or a million of rest, because neither of us can take this any longer. He's had the opportunity about a million times to just hang up the sword and rest, but he never takes it. Come on girl, think! I am sure you didn't just score twelve husbands by looks and kisses alone. You can come up with something."

She shook her pale head frantically, "Umm…Lefty, I just don't know. My marriages with those men didn't last more than a few years…I was always hopeless with winning over obstinate men. Most Nymphs my age have been married fifty times. If the Heart Bind doesn't work, than I am out of options."

The hand shook as if disagreeing, "No…listen, I talked to Pretty Boy earlier about you and I told him this. He wants you because you _don't_ need him. That's the only card you have to play and…aww shit!" the parasite cursed, than faded from D's palm as though it had only been a bizarre dream.

D had stirred, and then opened his eyes, upon looking at those steely orbs Luna knew that the parasites words were true. He'd again shut down from her. D rose from where he lay without a word, without even looking at her and began to don his discarded armor.

Hastily she began to form a plan.

They'd almost broken their campsite when Luna spoke, "D, I think that I am going to go on alone. You said the town isn't far."

He turned to face her, his face impassive, and he nodded.

"I am sure that you understand," she said looking only at her horse, "I think it's best that we part ways. We are poison for each other, it's best we not tempt each other any longer. Come here D, I'll release you." She turned, tried to make her face as emotionless as the dhampir's and she extended her hand.

Silently he stepped forth and took her hand, Luna braced for the coming pain she leaned forth and whispered almost inaudibly, "I release you D." and she pressed a soft kiss to his immobile lips. Shared between them was a sudden feeling of binds bursting apart, but rather than the feeling being that of liberation, a deep and clawing ache welled from the release the two hearts had experienced. Luna clearly heard D's started gasp as she two parted.

The Nymphs face showed no pain, she was used to the agony by now. "I know, it hurts when you release the Heart Bind, but soon enough you'll forget it."

D saw clear enough that tears were gathering in her eyes.

"Thank you." He answered coolly.

Again in silence they finished packing. Luna mounted her horse and cast a final, desperate glance over to the Hunter who seemed to gleam brighter than even the moonlight upon the snow.

"Well…goodbye Vampire Hunter D. I hope you find whatever it is that you're looking for."

'Godspeed." He said, touching his hand to the brim of his hat.

Without another word Luna urged her horse forward and trotted away, she could not contain the vivid, green tears that spilled from her eyes and ran down her cheeks, and was grateful to be out of his sight.

_Well…that's that_. She thought to her lonesome, _From what I know about men they cannot resist a woman who __**can **__resist them. Maybe he'll come after me…maybe not…defiantly not. But that's all I have to go on…I've released him from my spell…maybe that in itself with be enough for him to crave me…but a man like D…he doesn't crave anything. _

_Except perhaps vengeance, or whatever it is he's hunting for. Anything he does now is of he is own free will. _

The Nymph hung her head low and submitted to ache of sorrow within her heart.


	7. Interlude Part Two: The First Temptation

_Note: This was written before the translation of "Twin Shadowed Knight" so some of the events are not cannon, but in the end I decided to keep them as I originally wrote them. I mean, hey, it's just fan fiction. =)_

* * *

**Interlude Part Two: The First Temptation**

_"My blood wants to say hello to you, my feelings want to get inside of you, my soul is so afraid to realize, how very little good is left of me." - The Perfect Drug, Nine Inch Nails_

When he reached the miniature village D did not find the comfort of a bed. He was hardly surprised to find that the village was unwilling to sell to dhampirs. It was hatred so primal that the men remembered it even through the dazed, misty-eyed expressions each one of them wore, they where no doubt entranced by the Nymph that had preceded him that night. From a distance he watched her silvery haired figure as though it were a mere illusion as she roamed about the town, purchasing the supplies she needed for her trade with none of the resistance D met.

Nevertheless D was perfectly content to rest beneath the branches of an iron oak tree that lay almost out of boundaries of the village.

"So…um, here is a question for you D." Lefty spoke up, turning the Hunters hand freely to face him. "Why didn't you just leave the village entirely? Why are you hanging about here?"

No answer.

"Ohh, the silent treatment…yet again. You've got to think of more creative ways to punish me for nothing."

His answer was gelid and utterly unemotional. "I am keeping watch."

"Watch? For what….oh!" the symbiote chuckled trying to sound nonchalant, "The girl. Don't want to see her stoned and run out of town the way you've been at least a million and half times. HA! Oh D you love bird; you CARE for her don't you! Come on, admit it!"

"She needs not to see the things I have."

"HA! Protection…care…love! Oh you big softie! So you care for her, why not just tell her so? You know she's probably laying awake right now and dreaming of those very words. Come on, just do it!" the Left Hand had moved to it own accord to meet it's beady black eyes to D's.

"You heard what she said, we are poison for each other."

"Oh what does she know?" said the hand, waving about dismissively, "You see she's got your problem D, denying what she is, who she is, but using it to her advantage all the same. Well do you want my insight? I say fuck it! You can't help what you are D, the way you were born, and neither can she. So rather than just moping about and suffering why not let things just be? I mean look at me! I am a parasite, I am nothing more than your lousy hand, and I cannot deny that I can't survive unless I am attached to a host. But I couldn't be happier this way! You may work me like a dog, but I get plenty to eat, plenty to do and defiantly no lack of adventure. I put myself to good use…being your lousy hand has lots of perks you know. Instead of moaning and groaning about it, I accept it. So why not just be a dhampir and let her be a Nymph?"

To this D said nothing. He merely closed his eyes and leaned back against the bole of the tree. Unwillingly the image of Luna swam up into his minds eye, flashes of the way her lips had felt pressed against his, the warmth of her arms about him, the way she'd pleasured him.

However a moment later the images faded away as the haze of D's earliest memories again swam up to his awareness. Memories that he couldn't help but to recall at the thought of such temptations.

* * *

_The thing that stood out most about Mina the Fair was the fact that she always seemed to wear white. It highlighted the fair and almost cherubic features of her face, and made her black hair that fell almost to her feet stand out in stark contrast. D could never remember seeing any other color touch her skin…as if color was afraid to mar her beauty. After she'd told him the whole truth, D had wondered if that had been the reason __**he'd**__ chosen her, for her unworldly beauty. D couldn't help but to notice no matter how much dirt he dug in or how long he spent perched atop trees, he never seemed to get dirty. His mother was almost the same._

_But her white gown, far to elegant for the paupers' huts D had been living in most of his life, was what stood out most starkly in this particular memory that happened on the cusp of adolescence._

_Six years had passed since his first encounter with death. Enough time for his mother's tight grip upon him to slacken, she now let him play unsupervised in the forests they now lived in. He liked living in the forest far more than the villages. He much preferred the company of the Fae that teemed here, the cover of the trees from the wretched sunlight and the song of the untamed beasts that dominated it's nights rather than the boisterous, drunken song of villagers. The Fae were fascinated with him and his nature, and for the first time ever he was willingly invited into their childhood mischievousness. One day as he played his childhood games a Nymph roughly the same age as him had taken his hand and began to lead him out of the forest, they stopped on the edge of a windswept grass land. The young Nymph had turned to face him; her eyes were as vivid green as her hair that swayed wildly in the wind. Her hand tightened around his, "I like you, D." said the girl, giggling. He said nothing but it seemed she'd expected this reaction. 'You don't need to say it…" when she spoke next her voice was low and almost operatic. " I know you like me to."_

_D blinked, bemused as images swam before his mind, memories of the times his eyes and the Nymph's had met glances, and he wondered if all the rough punches and humiliations he'd subjected her to over the years meant something more. They must have._

"_Do you know what two people do when the like each other D? You put your arms around them and their lips touch. So, do you want to try it?" her suddenly inhuman voice purred silkily. _

_D did not protest when her arms went around his waist, and instantly he raised his own and placed them around the girls' shoulders. She was drawing closer and closer…D's hand pushed back her hair and found the wonderful sight of her pale, slender neck. That was where he wanted his lips the most…what would it be like if he'd tore into that neck the way he did to rabbits, martens and birds? Maybe he'd try it…touch her lips with his the way she wanted, then to kiss her in his own way._

_Her lips were now millimeters from his, her eyes were so vivid, so green, and they seemed the very color of temptation. She didn't hesitant even as D's eyes suddenly blazed the color of rubies caught within a shaft of sunlight. _

"_D!" came a wild scream._

_He whipped around and saw his Mother burst forth from the edge of the forest, her face was flushed but her gown seemed as vivid and perfect as ever. It seemed to burn its image into D's mind with its innocence. In her hand she clutched a large stone, which she hefted and then threw in blind rage. It struck the young Nymph full on in the face, and she fell down into the grass, shrieking, "You bitch!"_

_Mina reached out and grabbed her son by the wrist, pulling him possessively closer to her breast. "You'll never have him you woodland tramp! He's mine forever!" she wheeled away from the scene, ignoring D's shocked cries of confusion and outrage._

_Perhaps 15 minutes passed before Mina paused, and knelt down and looked D in the eye. Now they had returned to their regular shade of onyx, the same eyes that Mina possessed._

"_I think that we better go on…leave this forest. That Nymph won't rest until she'd had her way with you, until your under her spell…yes best to avoid temptation."_

_D's expression remained mystified, "I don't understand."_

"_D…long long ago I made the mistake of not resisting temptation. I was young, and naive. I didn't know any better. My weakness is the reason we are still fleeing now. D, if you had let that girl kiss you something terrible would have happened. Nymphs are dangerous creatures, vain and obsessive beings with no purpose but to enslave men. That was all the Nobility created them for. And Nymphs have a very special spell that they use to enslave; they call it the Heart Bind. Their first kiss creates a bond with the mind that ties their hearts, at least spiritually, together. All feelings of desire for that Nymph are driven to the forefront of that mans mind, and he can wither away from heart break if he does not find that Nymph. They fall instantly in love. They often use this spell to punish those that anger them. Indeed, there is no worse revenge than to fall in love, and to be driven to madness by your passions. Only death or the Nymph herself can break that spell. Do you understand what I am saying D…that's the best I can explain it." She said standing up and looking down on her now rapidly growing son. She never spoke to him as child…he'd always been so much more than that. From the day she'd given him life, and only six hours later he had been walking effortlessly about the room._

_After a long moment D spoke, "So, love is terrible? The Fae told me it was good."_

_For a moment Mina's face crumbled, pain struck her dark eyes but her resolve quickly returned, "Yes. Yes it is. You must never let yourself fall to such a trivial weakness. As you grow older you'll understand exactly what it is that those woodland hussies desire, and you'll court and perhaps even marry a young woman. But don't you dare let heart become entangled with hers. You see, love is a terrible as hate, because in the end, no matter what you believed, it was all illusion. A dream. Save for the love of a children and parents, there is no love."_

_There was the slightest ripple of pain across his face, "So…does Father love me? Even though he's not here?"_

_Her eyes darkened, "I've told you before, Dracula. It's best that we keep running from your father. He was a Nobel… a bloodthirsty and cruel one at that. He enslaved me for many years before I gave birth to you. One look at you, and I know I could not bear to raise you under his wraith."_

_She set her jaw, and the strength slowly returned to her face, "I saw the blood light in your eyes when that Nymph neared you D." In a flash her hand whipped out and stuck her son violently across the cheek. He recoiled and looked at his mother with pitiful eyes._

"_Don't give me that look D. I've told you before, drinking blood is evil. To desire it is a sin. God help me, I will not see you become a devil like your father."_

_It was only a week later that D had found his Mother laying on the floor of the hovel they were soon to leave, sobbing wretchedly. She clutched a scrap of parchment in her hands; D rushed to her side and begged what was wrong. She only held out the parchment._

_**It's useless to keep this up Mina. I can find you any moment I wish, and I desire you now. I have need of my heir. Run all you wish, but I will follow. **_

_**Your love, **_

_**Dracula**_

"_It's…from __**him!**__" she cried out in her broken sobs. "Do you know what this means? No…no you've no idea. This can't be…"_

"_I don't understand."_

"_Of course…you have no idea. You don't of terrible things he's done of how you come to be. Please…try to understand. I loved your father. What choice did I have?"_

_He said nothing, merely waiting for an answer._

"_Your father…all he wanted in this world was an heir, you remember who he was right? He was the King of the Vampires…they call him the Sacred Ancestor. But he did not want just any son, he wanted the perfect son. One with the strength of both human and vampire, but more than just any dhampir. He tried countless experiments to create that perfect son…he killed millions of children in the process, perhaps and twice as many maidens Human, Vampire, Werewolf…nothing was safe from his experimentations. Than…he found me. I was married at the time, but I was so unhappy. I felt so alone, so unfulfilled. One look at your father…and…and…well that's why I say falling in love is wrong D. I was enslaved. He took me his victim, and I became his bride."_

_D gazed impassively at her, 'You drank his blood, didn't you? That's why you still miss him now." He stated simply, not even sure how he'd known such a thing. It seemed innate. _

"_Yes." She nodded sadly, "It almost killed me, but when I survived his poisonous life force he too fell irrevocably in love with me. I joined the ranks of his maidens, giving birth to his imperfect dhampir sons. And D…every time one was born, he killed them! Every last one…" she gasped voice thick with sorrow. "My days were more miserable than ever…I was a slave to your father, I watched countless infants crushed by his might. I was so lost…until you came along."_

"_Me?" he repeated disbelievingly._

"_Yes. The moment he saw you…he cried out for joy. He held you in his arms and he named you after himself. He was confident when I quickened with you, that you were the perfect one…I'd always had a habit of producing the children he almost found perfect. That time he was certain, and with good reason to be. But he put you through trials to make certain…he threw you in the river, but you swam. He staked you through the heart with wood, and you lived. He beat you again and again, and you hardly noticed it. He cut off your left hand and threw it across the room…and it crawled back and reattached itself."_

"_What!" D cried, backing away from his mother, instinctively he looked at his left hand. "That's impossible. I can't swim. And remember when I was six and I was staked, I almost died!"_

_Her lips trembling, Mina refused to meet his eyes, "I know…but it was your father testing you. I suspect he knew how to find your abilities, even if they weren't fully developed. When you're fully grown D, you'll be stronger, and more powerful than anything this Earth has ever known. He knew this. He had his heir…but you see, he made the mistake of letting me see your face. I'd never seen any of my children's faces before, yet by chance I saw you before he had the chance to. I stole you away from him. His perfect son…" she whimpered, and her tears began anew._

_D was unsure of what to do at the sight of her crying. He'd seen her cry so often, but she always pushed him away when he'd tried to comfort her. "What now?"_

"_I cannot let him find me. I cannot go back to him, no matter how much I miss him." She sobbed; her snow-white gown seemed to shimmer in the daylight. "D…" Mina moaned, 'D…you must be strong for me. You cannot let it happen again…don't let him come back. You must be strong. You cannot crack for a single second." She reached out and lovingly stroked a tendril of his dark hair._

* * *

"Warmth and love, eh?" said a hoarse voice. "Geeze, you know the more and more I see about your life with Mommy dearest, the more I start thinking she really was a little neurotic. Slightly. I mean what sort of mother tells her son never to fall in love!"

"The sort that fell under _his_ spell. The sort who never wanted anything more than a quite, normal life with a human son."

"You see. There we go again. Another person who bitched and moaned about her lot in life rather than just make the most of it. No wonder your such a mess D."

Surprisingly D didn't muffle the parasite. His next words shocked the creature, "Your right. She did hurt me. She twisted and corrupted me, but it wasn't her fault. It was him that made her that way. It's because of him that I won't rest. Not until he's dead."

"Aww, here we go again! Look D, I've told you a million times these past years, just give it up! It's been 9,500 years…almost your whole life, and you haven't found him! All you've found is traces of his work, legends, seen a glimpse of him for maybe three minutes, found even more legends of where he was hiding out a 100 years ago, rumors that he's dead when we both know he's as immortal as you. Aren't you sick of this chase yet D? I don't know about you, but I am sick of seeing you work your ass for this pointless existence. There…you see I just admitted that I care for you. And I am freaking parasite…could you please just do the same with the girl?"

For a long time, nothing was said. The symbiote sighed at the steel faced Hunter and dropped down at his side. He did not expect that he would have spoke another word that night and it came as unexpected shock when D uttered something so low even the symbiote almost missed it.

"I don't know what it is."

'Huh?" he questioned and turned to face him.

"Luna. I am still thinking about her." He stated simply. Now that the thoughts of that first temptation had run its course, he found that the images in his head were going directly back to the Nymph. " I desire her. That's all. I cannot trust her."

"Why? Because of the Heart Bind? Do I need to remind you that she's been extremely patient with you? Much more than any horny Nymph I've ever seen. She's always followed your lead, you do recall that it was you that kissed her, right? And she released you from the Bind. You've no reason to be thinking of her now. Your free."

D then hung his head, as though he were deep in complicated, anguishing thought, and emotion. "It's her blood, that's all. I am connected to her through blood." He answered more to himself. "I should have never accepted it."

"Well, could be. How should I know? An intimate connection by blood is possible, depending on the Nobel in question. But you haven't really bit anyone for me to tell you if have a connection, not since I've been around. You've taken a few blood offerings here and there, and once in a while you'll get a girl in the sack, but you've never bit anyone. Not until now."

D was hardly absorbing the parasites words, only one thought was important to his mind now. It wore the guise of silvery hair, and large, seductive eyes, and shapely feminine curves. D could not deny the need that was quickly uncoiling though his body; he felt his teeth began to grow, his jaw aching as though needing flesh to latch down upon.

"So many pretty young things have offered you their necks, and you turned every one down. Would you turn Luna down? Knowing how terribly she wants you, knowing that she doesn't mind. You could latch onto her neck until she passed out, she'd never fight you. In fact she'd know your pleasure…"

"Leave me alone!" D had suddenly growled, the blood light was vivid in his eyes, his body quivered in sudden agony.

"Hey! I was in the middle of speech here!" the Left Hand protested.

"Leave…" D hissed, his voice had a very rare and desperate tone that Lefty heard from the dhampir when he was deep in the throes of lust. D's right hand quickly began to unsnap the lower half of his armor, than to undo his trousers.

"Oh shit! I knew all that blood talk was a bad idea…" the parasite cursed, then disappeared from sight as though it had never been.

D was panting and not far from the edge of orgasm when he at last freed his throbbing lust. He gripped himself tightly in his hand, and closed his eyes and denied it no longer.

The image of the Nymph was vivid against his eyes.

* * *

"_I won't hold back." D murmured in between kissing her swollen lips, "Not here. Not for you. Things are different now."_

_Here in the realm of dreams he was not longer the Vampire Hunter D. He did not know who he was, but he desired the Nymph all the same._

"_I know." Luna murmured, kissing him deeply, and tightening her grip upon where he most wanted her. D groaned against her lips, and he smoothed his hands down her arms, across the curves of her breast and down her legs. Her skin was every bit as soft and smooth now as it had been in reality._

"_Please…"D panted, melding his lips hard against hers, pulling her ever closer. "I can't wait."_

_The Nymph pushed him playfully down onto his back, down onto the silky sheets of an unfamiliar bed. Her hair cascaded around his face and chest and she kissed him once again, than achingly slow she explored down the rest of his body with her hands, her lips and her tongue. D's own hands were insistent, and devoured her soft skin with unfettered desire._

_The Nymph mounted him, giggling rather seductively as her legs tightened around his hips, and his more than ready manhood was flush against the center of her own craving. Unable to fight any more, D grabbed her hips, and shifted them until at last he found her entrance, slick and yearning for him and he plunged fully inside, relishing her shocked and pleasured gasp, groaning out in his own fulfillment. She was so warm, so tight and welcoming to his invasion._

_He began to move inside of her, his rhythm slow, and only teasing at first, but he pulled Luna down onto his chest, back into his arms, to his lips. Only tenderness, akin almost to the glow of love passed between the two as their arms encircled the other, and their lips met. D laced his hand through hers, as though to solidify their union. Eventually their deeper instincts would not be denied any longer, D fought it no more, and began to pick up his pace. Howls of pleasure soon escaped from his lips. The Nymph sat up, and thrust her hips against his, meeting his rhythm and challenging it. A wild cry escaped her lips. Soon they moved so frantically that the bed began to tremble, and squawk in protest, both the lovers' pants and groans were short and in perfect synchronization._

D was now laying with his back against the ground, his hand working wildly on his straining sex, and he panted as though unable to breathe, and gorgeous face contorted as though in pain. He was so far into his fantasy now that if any living creature had dared to intrude upon this strange, beautiful scene of sexuality, that even the Hunter wouldn't bother to give heed.

_D effortlessly rolled her onto her back, groaning in protest when their connection was broken for an instant and plunging back inside of her as though his salvation depended upon it. Now he dominated her with his primal rhythm and she shrieked out in utmost satisfaction. Her hands smoothed up his face, clinched in his hair, "Oh D…" she gasped._

_He was close now…so very close…and that's when his eyes strayed down to her neck just slightly bared against the wild strands of her hair. "No…" he panted. "I won't. I wont do it! No…"_

_It was useless…he could smell the feral blood calling out to him. Despite dwelling in a world of dreams he could feel the fangs lengthening in his mouth, his vision grew rose tinted. He slammed into her with all the ruthlessness of a battering ram, but he would find no satisfaction that way. Only one thing could quell him now. With a pale hand he brushed away her hair, staring down at her neck. The vein was pulsating with each panting breath she took. "I wont…"_

_But even as he said the words his mouth opened wide and he fell down upon her throat, driving the cruel shafts easily into her flesh. He tasted the sweetest, most heated blood he'd ever before known, and D screamed out with his orgasm…_

* * *

When he opened his eyes next he found that he was laying on his side, panting and slick with sweat. He'd spilled his seed onto the ground, and beneath his cheek was a pool of fresh blood. He tasted blood in his mouth, and found the source to be from his bottom lip, which he must have gnashed open his bloodlust.

For a long time he lay there, panting and unmoving.


	8. Chapter 8: A Bite of Hope

_Note: Fair warning for sex scenes. Of course…if your a fan girl, you were likely skipping ahead to this chapter. Well skip no more! :P_

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**Illusions **

**Chapter Eight: A Bit(e) of Hope**

_"Come here to me, I am waiting. Feel the disease. You'll be dying in my arms tonight." - Feel the Disease. Kissing Violet_

"_I said I'd try my luck, you said "Well you don't, don't have to try." - We've Got The Knife, AFI_

D remained on his silent vigil at the edge of town, waiting until morning broke. That was when she passed obliviously by on her horse, her head held high and her inquisitive eyes bright at the prospect of whatever lay before her. She turned her horse east, out of the swath of cold, and trotted away in silence. If she sensed D's presence as he rose and followed her on foot, she did not show it. He easily could have matched her pace, but remained just out of her line of sight.

'So…we're following her now? Oh what, are you going to tell me she's not fit for the Frontier, because that's bullshit. You've seen her magic, she can even charm the pants off you!" laughed the symbiote.

D did not respond, not even to clinch his hand over the wise cracking creature.

Night fell and D paused as he saw her figure stop and settle for the night, creating her usual blue camp fire, consuming her fruits and then settling down onto the snowy ground. In time he found his feet moving forward, as through drawn to the ethereal blue flames; his mind was a haze of confusion and doubt. But one thought was crystal clear; he was indeed growing weary of this fruitless Hunting. In fact he despised it. The solitude was crushing in on him from all sides…from time to time even D crumbled beneath the pressure of loneliness and for a moment he craved warmth and attention. Now, he'd crumbled. Now even he could not face another cold night alone.

When he approached her camp he found the Nymph was already asleep in a silvery bedroll, her hair was spread across the pillow and it blended perfectly across the silver of the snow. D recognized the weave of the bedroll to be that of a solar sleeper. Only ten minutes of exposure to sunlight, or thirty on a cloudy day, would provide the traveler with ten hours of warmth. D could not help but to frown at this, apparently it had been bought in town; it seemed a laughable replacement for the warmth of his arms.

With the greatest hesitation he knelt down by her side. It took an enormous amount of effort to merely raise his hand and place it on her shoulder. The time when those same hands had moved faster than the eye could see to now seemed a vague memory to him. There was even the slightest nervous tremble to his hand as he reached out and first touched her shoulder, than moved to smooth back the Nymph's pale hair.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned her bleary eyes to face the Hunter. With a vast amount of effort, he kept his hand buried in her thick hair. All weariness left her form was she reached out and laced her fingers through the Hunters free hand.

"Is…is this a dream?" she mused.

"No." D answered solemnly.

Breathlessly Luna stared up at him, "May I take this moment to tell you how absolutely fucking beautiful you are? Your completely perfect."

D felt his lips curve upward in a smile, Luna laughed, 'Vampire Hunter D, did you just smile?"

"Ha! You did, you love bird!" came a familiar gruff voice that the Nymph did not seem to take notice of. "Come on, kiss her already!"

"Go away." He hissed to parasite under his breath, but he took its advice and leaned forward, moving his hand to her cheek. He leaned down and found her waiting lips with his own. Again a feeling of exquisite, binding passion was shared between them, pulling their bodies closer together, causing each of other their hearts to tremble in ardor. They closed their eyes and savored the feel of the other. When they parted it was D that spoke first, gazing down into the Nymph's bright eyes.

"You may call me Dracula, if you wish." He could not remember the last time, if ever he'd confided his birth name to another.

"Dracula." She whispered, "yes…I've heard rumors about you. I thought that might be your name. But your still D to me." She slid her arms around the Hunters neck, and pulled him down into another hungry kiss. In her enthusiasm she again knocked off his immense hat, but D took little notice of this. He only took her fully into his arms. Luna tossed away her silver blanket and entwined herself in his arms, deepening his kiss and tangling with his tongue.

Eagerly D's hand slipped up her thigh and under her tunic, wasting no time in finding her panties. Luna soon abandoned all restraint and with fingers that were clumsy in their insistency she began to unsnap and unhinge the heavy armor, lightly taking the sword off his back. Ever mindful of his nature, she laid the sword close beside him, at his right side where his hand could easily find it. The rest of his clothes she was not so kind to. She almost tore them right off his sculpted body, a body that even Gods would have envied.

D, fueled by the Nymph's passion, grasped her thin clothes and easily ripped them off her form, distantly thinking that he was skilled enough with needle to repair them later. Her nakedness seemed to shimmer in the moonlight, a veritable mirage of female beauty that beckoned to him. Their was a slight flush to her cheeks, and in her dainty panties she seemed almost an innocent virgin to D's devouring gaze, but her heaving bosom was left completely exposed to his sight reminding him that she was a creature created solely for this moment.

Slowly, as though not wanting to miss an inch of her beauty D explored her impassioned body, first with his calloused hands, than his cold lips. There was no room for the self-consciousness he usually felt when he found himself enamored with a woman. While many a mortal man felt shame at their imperfect bodies, D was the opposite, ashamed of his gleaming elegant one that so entranced his lovers and drew them away from any true intimacy. Ashamed of the lurid visage he could fight back. But it didn't matter now, not with a creature as lovely as this. Surly she'd known his own shame, and perhaps that's why her gaze regarded him almost as thought he were mortal.

He caressed every inch of her skin, and the panting Nymph followed suit, stripping him completely naked, not even letting his blue pendant remain. In time, D caught her panties in his teeth, and drug them easily down her thighs, and slowly kissed upwards, arriving at her innermost garden were she was as bare as a child, and then kissing the delicate lips he found there. A quivering breath spilled from the Nymph, she arced into him and clinched her hands in his dark hair and trapped him against her. She began to whimper as his mouth began to explore her there as thoroughly as it has the rest of her skin.

After a minute or so Luna opened her eyes and began to plead with him for more, but right then a white bolt of pleasure rippled through her sex, and upward throughout her body. D had inserted a long, thin finger inside of her. He was shocked that he'd ever forgotten just how smooth, warm and inviting the feel of a woman could be even to his finger. She writhed in delirious passion as he thrust his finger in a manner he was now yearning to mimic elsewhere. As though it were innate knowledge he knew exactly were and what rhythm the Nymph hungered for his touch. He watched her writhing body and hungrily stroked his aching erection. He breathed in short, heavy pants like a feral beast, but he craved far more than blood now. Indeed all sanguine thought had been pushed entirely from the dhampir's mind, but he remembered enough to be gentle with his dagger like teeth when he bent forward and firmly began to kiss the most tender, pearl shaped part of her.

"Oh D!" the Nymph sobbed fervently, her head thrown back into the snowy drifts, as the first gripping waves of orgasm absorbed her, her nails bit with a delightful little pain into his scalp. With short and firm caresses of his tongue her worshipped the whole of her desire, and added a second finger to his ministrations, but he focused the blunt of his attentions to that tiny, silky pearl. She breathed as though drowning through a wave of bliss, and as D expertly curved his fingers upwards that wave broke across the Nymph. She twisted and cried out beneath him in a sound so wild, and so magnificent that D could never recall hearing anything quite like it. He did not relent, and again wrenched the lovely cry from her. It so different from hearing the dying screams of his enemies, so enthralling.

For the briefest moment D saw disjointed images dance before his eyes, even though they were not closed. Fair faces that he did not recognize, silvery structures built high into trees he could distantly recall seeing in his travels, and overflowing emotions that could not have been his own. Perhaps he did share a sort of blood bind with this woman, or perhaps the innate magic of the Nymph could work both ways.

It was Luna that twisted away from D, her form shaking with gratification and her eyes somehow brighter than before. She wrapped her arms tightly about him. "Just take me D, please. I am your slave." D said nothing as he kissed her swollen lips and he lay her back onto the snowy ground and eagerly pressed against her. The barest shiver escaped his lips as he felt the agonizing, hard length of him pressing to tantalizingly against the softness of her.

For a moment he gazed hard into her eyes, making certain that no doubt could be found within her, and he surrendered to the delirious need. Slowly their bodies entwined together and became one, even D was not immune to the exquisite pleasure of entering her and a gorgeous pitching groan was summoned from him. Luna moaned in unison with him, with no hint of pain to her voice, only pure ecstasy. Naturally their lips meet, and their hands laced tightly through the others. Slowly at first they moved to the pagan rhythm. Soon enough their ardor began to spiral wildly beyond their control, and the rhythm picked up. The Nymph challenged and met his pace with eagerness and instance that seemed unworldly, her nails biting down into his flesh and legs twining around his hips. She managed to clamp down vice like upon his sex, causing captivated cries to well from D.

The Nymph of course knew that D was quickly nearing his peak, she could feel it building like fire through her own body, but D's lovely face betrayed no hint of emotion, or rapture. He seemed so calm, so concentrated into this singular moment; to feel pleasure and to pleasure her…oh he did that so well. How was it that every part of this union felt like making love to utter divinity? The way he touched her, the press of his lips, the driving and insistent thrusts that brought her again and again to heaven, it was all too divine…how was it possible? She was not sure how long had passed but again and again Luna howled out with ecstasy, her eyes stared glassily up at the moonlight, at D's gorgeous face. She was almost unable to tell them apart in her delirious thrall, and there was still that torturous wave of fire building in her that wasn't her own.

She meet D's eyes, that's when she saw flashes of memories that were not her own.

Perhaps 30 seconds this connection lasted, and the flashes were disjointed…a matronly woman draped in white. A man that looked exactly like D but crueler, older, with blazing eyes. A cultured castle teeming with human despair. A grand masquerade. Flashes of the vast, untamed Frontier. Countless victims that where sundered beneath his blade. Each fragmented memory was quite vivid, each emotion and pain was unaltered by it's brevity. Luna pulled from his lips with a gasp, her heart throbbing with pain...how was it possible that he bore such agony yet showed no noticeable hint of it? It was only the frustration that she now felt building within in D that stayed her tears. That wild wave of his rapture was so bright now, so close to breaking…yet it did not.

Satisfaction was eluding him, D's breath came in strange, angered pants as he drove into her at a rhythm now almost painful to the Nymph, he moaned only in aggravation. There was only one thing that would bring that release, D knew it, and Luna knew it.

"Do it." She said, pushing back the raven black hair that had curtained her face and looking deep into his glowing eyes. "I don't care."

"I do." His voice was forged of steel.

There was another momentary flash, an image of the white gowned woman, his mother as she struck him harshly when he returned home with blood on his lips after he'd killed animals for substance. She would tell him when he would faint from the blood starvation that he was only sick and that she would cure him. She'd done all she could to drive the blood lust out of him…"Don't let **HIS** blood control you D!" she would sob in utmost desperation.

Luna however only shook her head, "Don't deny it D, please. I want it, I want to know all your soul, even the Nobel in you."

Perhaps it was rebellion of his mother that drove D to caress her throat and bring it to his sight; perhaps it was only surrender to the craving of her call. His intense rhythm never slackening, he leaned down and lightly kissed her soft, white throat. He could hear the frenzied blood pounding in her veins, screaming desperately to him.

"I won't!" he growled in desperation with himself. "I'll loose control. I'll bite others. I won't!"

"A man as strong willed as yourself? I think not." she reassured pressing him closer to her neck.

D could hardly breath with excitement, and easily enough he abandoned his affection and opened his mouth wide, bearing those immense fangs. He sought out the exact point that would yield the most of her heated blood, then lightly bit down into the flesh. He'd meant for his bite to be relatively insignificant, but as the first taste of the crimson life force touched his lips D's body lurched and he drove his fangs completely into the Nymph's throat. Both lovers whimpered in the shared fulfillment of the act. Hungrily D sucked at the rich flood of sanguine wine, withdrawing his teeth and latching tightly over the raw wounds, catching the flow with his mouth and caressing her with the darkest of kisses.

Now he knew only the brightest, most ruthless bliss, and he wrapped his arms tight about the Nymph's waist and thrust into her one last time. D flew up from her neck, his glowing eyes utterly wild, his face was no longer impassive, but flushed with color and suffused with rapture. Each screamed out simultaneously in orgasm, D's once steely voice was broken and desperate, and his powerful body shuddered with it.

It seemed as if minutes passed before their breathing stilled to a more bearable pace, and calm again resided. D was still unable to resist her temptation. He fell weakly onto her body, and his lips sought out the river of blood he freed from her throat, feed from her until the wounds merely trickled. All the while a soft, drugging exhaustion crept through his body, soon he lay down wearily onto her shoulder.

A moment later the Nymph spoke in a hesitant voice, "D…you're crushing me". There was an undeniable wavier to her words.

Without a word he lifted his colossal form from her and lay down into the biting cold of the snow.

Luna did not face him, and merely shifted her body back into the warmth of her sleeping bag, her back to D. He heard it then, a soft chocked sob and then smelled the salt of her tears.

"I've hurt you." He answered simply enough.

"No." Her voice quivered, "No you didn't." Although she could not deny that the wounds on her throat were now throbbing.

D said nothing, unsure of how to comfort the crying woman. He found his discarded cape and slung it around his shoulders, and his right hand rested reassuringly on his blade partially covered by the snow, and then he donned that as well. For a moment he hesitated, then moved into the sleeping bag along side of her and covered her naked form with his cape. She turned then, and pressed her face against his bare chest, her hair veiled her face but through the locks D could see the vivid green tears that lined her face.

"It's just…well…I don't know if you knew but when Nymph's make love they feel what their lovers feel…the Heart Bind runs so deep that we can see into our lovers soul. And I saw so much. So much pain and so much death. You mother…your father. And all those victims, all you have seen die…all those you couldn't save. How can you bear it all?" she whimpered feebly among her tears.

D never answered her. He touched his left hand to the livid bloodied mark on her throat, 'You will not be turned. That was not my intention, I have no power over you."

She brushed his hand away, 'Don't…don't take away the marks. I want them, to remember you." She sniffled and tried to sound impassive, "I suppose you'll be gone when I wake up tomorrow, just a gorgeous illusion?"

"No. I'll stay. For tonight."

D could hear the frantic flutter of her heart. "I love you D." she said the words quickly, as though terrified that he would cut them down the way he cut his enemies down.

She did not feel disappointment when the Hunter said nothing, she'd not expected him to, but she'd also not expected him to brush back her now tangled hair and kiss her lips softly.


	9. Chapter 9: Dreams

**Illusions**

_Note: I'll admit this is a bit of a track filler chapter at first, but I thought D needed a bit of romance before I get to the angsty end of this story. Blah, sex scenes are so tricky to write._

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**Chapter 9: Dreams**

"_**Him**__" D muttered, sending his gaze to the wide opened doors. " It all started with him. All the dreams and all the tragedies." - Vampire Hunter D: Riser of Gales_

_**Three Months Later**_

Luna smiled as she spied it, a single white bloom intertwined amongst the fronds of a willow tree. She spurred her mount toward the canopy and reached up to retrieve the flower. It was a white rose that had been fastened the fronds of the willow by a slender beaded chain, identical to ones that D occasionally wore through his hair. She caressed the white petals, not hiding the smile upon her face. It was his message to her, his way of letting her know that he was near, and that her memory was still vivid in his heart.

Did D know the symbolism of the white rose and the willow tree that Nymphs held? Did he know that such a rose represented eternal love, and that the willow represented the strength to over come any mortal challenge? Was it all just a coincidence? Never the less Luna held the rose to her breast and dared to believe that perhaps they would know such eternal love. She could not deny that these three months had been the most passionate of her immortality, she felt as if she'd never before known passion, never before seen beauty until she'd glimpsed D's face, kissed his lips and lain with him. It mattered little to her that D remained resolute in Hunting, and that Luna kept her own nomadic healing…somehow he would find her. And somehow she knew that D was never far from her, she even dared to hope that the thought of her never left him, just the way they never left her.

Sometimes he appeared before her like a wraith from the shadows no matter where she slept, and he would say nothing at all. He would only kiss her, and make love to her. Then there were times when he would not even kiss her, but he appeared at her campfire to talk, much to the Nymphs shock. He would tell her disjointed, and tragic stories of his confused childhood, his adolescence spent in the splendor of the Nobility; of those he'd failed to save as a Hunter. Luna supposed he was weary of keeping these crushing truths to his lonesome. About three times a week D made his sporadic appearances, but no matter what his intention one thing remained constant, he always held her in his arms as she slept, although he rarely rested himself. He held her as tightly as he might gripped his long sword in battle.

_**Later That Day**_

Luna had barely even laid down into the comforting bed sheets of the room she'd rented, had just barely lit the candles when there was a soft knock on her door. Dismissively she invited the guest in, expecting it must be innkeeper but she was hardly surprised when the door creaked open to reveal a tall, elegant figure of the most awe inspiring beauty.

"D…"she smiled. Somehow he always knew where to find her, no matter where she was. Her first impulse was to rush into his arms, and to greet him with a kiss but she…like every time before, beat back the impulse. D wasn't exactly the romantic type to appreciate such enthusiasm. Instead the Nymph said nothing and tried to keep the awkwardness out her voice as she invited him in.

He said nothing as he entered the room and slowly shut the door behind him, he moved to the bed and sat gingerly down upon it, carefully removing his sword and placing it on his right side, than removing his hat. He sighed as though suddenly infinitely weary and bowed his head. Indeed Luna could see the slightest hint of exhaustion about his gorgeous features, the faintest shadow beneath his eyes but his movements were as silent and swift as always.

"D, are you alright?" she felt her heart flutter as he raised his face to hers, heat flared up from her loins and through out her entire body at the sight of his now unshadowed face. Timidly she moved to his side and after a long moment she dared to touch his slender hand. It was a hesitant touch, as if she was unsure whether it was appropriate and was ready to pull away at a moments notice. Her breath quivered as she watched his impassive face, her body aching all the more, raging for only one thing.

D stirred, but it was not to pull away from her. His free hand reached out to touch her cheek for but a single moment, and then in a move that shocked even the Nymph he pulled her forward and down onto his lips, kissing her hungrily. Luna was still remained utterly wary of his intentions…it was more than likely that all he wanted a single kiss and nothing more, and she released her fears when D parted her lips and deepened the kiss, he moved his hand from hers and placed it on her thigh, far past the hem of her gown. Only then did she close her eyes and savor the moment, inhaling to rosy scent of his hair, and pushing her hands down his muscled body.

"Do you fear me?" came D's steely voice when he pulled from her lips.

The Nymph stared at him momentarily shocked, "Of course not." She lied. How could one not fear this man who killed on demand, without mercy and emotion?

"Than why do you never take the initiative?" he challenged her lightly, not releasing her from his embrace.

Nervously she smiled, "Well D you're not exactly an open book. I suppose I do fear offending you, I never know why you return to me."

Her eyes were painfully wide as D's hand slid further her thigh, slipped under her panties, the whole of her soul felt poised on the edge of his words, " Why would I not return? Your voice is home to me."

A sob almost betrayed her lips, they where words that were akin to praise from the Gods. At this she lurched forward and grabbed his lips with her own, and she moved into the line of his body, winding her legs about his hips. Slowly D's kiss grew even more insistent and his breathing slightly fevered.

"Take your clothes off Luna." He growled lowly although he was already helping her with that task. His vamperic visage was undeniable now. Her hands quickly obeyed his orders; her heart was hammering in her breast. Had he ever before used her name? She could not recall…

He was hungrily removing his own clothing, his gleaming eyes remained locked on hers, as he unbuckled his armor and unlaced his tunic and his trousers. His glorious naked form seemed to shimmer in the candle light as his clothing fell away, a sight that seemed to brilliant even for her immortal eyes. Only the pendant around his neck and the elegant rings on his fingers remained of his former armor. Gasping with allure she rushed forward and kissed him again. It was a kiss so fierce that her lips collided with the dhampirs ever-present fangs and bleed. Immediately D tasted her blood and he arched passionately aginst her naked form, pushing her down onto the bed and sucking on the bleeding wounds until they would yield no more. Luna whimpered at the slight, teasing waves of pleasure that flared through her body, although technically that pleasure was D's and she only experienced it through her nature.

A brief vision flashed before the Nymphs closed eyes, the image of a lank haired servant girl that stared at D with glazed and rapturous eyes. A tall pale man, with elegant, long black hair and D's own refined features nodded at him, _"Go on Dracula, take her, do anything that you wish. It's your birth right."_ D's gaze feel to her neck and the vision ended.

The present D shuddered as he pulled away from her swollen lips, "You did that on purpose." He said stonily.

"Perhaps. I know what you want, dhampir." She allowed herself to answer mischievously, tracing her finger across his lips and the fangs that protruded past them.

The slightest grin crossed his face, and then he sank down to her exposed breast and fell to exploring each with his cruel, yet enchanting mouth. At first he only tempted her with the softest of touches, then carefully began biting down on each hardened nipple, causing her to writhe. D found himself savoring this moment, worshiping the flesh that held her thundering heart and loving the feel of her fingers clinched against his scalp. It was little wonder he returned. Luna writhed against him, shifting her body against his and groaning when she felt his rigid sex pressing against where she needed him. She reached down to caresses and stroke him, loving the soft gasps it freed from his lips and then moved to initiate their union. D rose on his arms and pulled away from her grasp, denying her satisfaction. Instead he pleasured himself and kept worshipping her breast with his lips, than with painstaking sluggishness he made his way up to her neck. He smoothed back her hair, and bit down upon her skin, but it wasn't a true bite…her skin was not pierced by the saber like fangs, only lightly abused by them.

Luna shivered in both frustration and passion, "What are you doing D! Just take me, please. I can't stand this, bite me, fuck me, but stop teasing me!"

D rose from her neck, lightly touching her lips with his own. "I know what you want Nymph." He answered; a slight impish light was now glimmering in his eyes.

"You bastard…" she growled playfully, and in a move that shocked even the Hunter, she grasped his shoulders and flipped him almost easily down onto his back. The Nymph on occasion showed quite a bit of hidden strength, the fact that she could flip him so thoughtlessly was most astonishing. But D did not protest this in the least; rather a surge of lust gripped him. It was rather beautiful to see her gorgeous form dominating him, mounting his hips, pressing his chest down and tangling her legs through his. With her insistency even D would have had a time of escaping even, that is, had he wanted to escape. He firmly cupped his hands around her rear, ignoring the faint hoarse cry the seemed to come from his left hand. ("Haha! Allllright!" it snickered.)

She pressed herself gently down onto his erection, just enough so that he could feel the soft, and slick flesh parting for his invasion, but no more. There was a sudden pounding in his ears, after a moment he recognized the frantic drum to be that of Luna's pounding heart and her rushing blood. He gazed up at her in utmost desperation, wanting her then more than he'd even wanted anything before. For a moment or to she tempted him with only this tantalizing hint of her, until D could bear no more and grasped her hips and pulled her fully down onto him. His body arched and a halting gasp was pulled from his lips as it happened. The Nymphs moan mirrored his, and right away D began to move within her. His hands traveled up her smooth body, kneading at her breasts. A feral groan escaped her lips as Luna leaned forward, down across his chest. Her hips swayed in perfect, needful unison of D's. Somehow he seemed so perfectly sized to touch her just right, at that aching spot deep within her abdomen that shrieked with excitement as he touched it. Her eyes went wild, glassy with excitement, and she trembled weakly as he found it again and again, sank fully inside of her and pressed hard against it.

" OH D!" she shrieked out, the rest of her voice than broke into a panting cry. He felt her muscles clinching tighter about him as she orgasmed, drawing out a soft cry from him as well.

"Come here." He said softly and pulled the Nymph back down into his arms, still buried deep within her but was motionless. He nuzzled against her cheek, and merely held her to him, delighting in the warmth of their embrace the way he knew she must have been craving. She frantically kissed every bit of him she could find, than after a moment rose again and urged him to move along with her.

There pace was much slower now, their breath calmer even in it's heated haste and every so often their eyes meet and locked. Minutes would pass before they parted, and it always ended with a passionate kiss as their lips were drawn to the others. D rose, pulled her close to him and rolled her down onto her back then hastened his rhythm. Luna whimpered softly as the impassioned wave of pleasure began to swell once again. She could just barely remember that she must savor this moment, for she did not know, when or if she would know it again. She absorbed the firm hold of his muscled arms, the way his sculpted chest pressed against her breast, the scent of roses that seemed to linger about him, even the slightly annoyed way he pushed back his hair when he leaned into her, although it always feel right back in his face.

D became wildly insistent, passion again flared wildly up through her body, both her own and D's, for brief instant she saw flashes of memories that were not hers…crushing physical pain bolting right through his heart where a stake of wood had once, and many times, pierced his heart. She felt what it was like to fall empty, and lifeless to the ground, to see that strange, veiled gateway she'd once rescued him from. Luna's eyes snapped open and she focused hard only on D's impassive face, while his blood was pounding his face it did show the barest hint of rapture. Why was it only pain, death and misery that she saw through the Heart Bind? Does he know nothing else?

_No_, she though as she wound her legs tightly about his hips, rising to meet his rhythm, and holding tight to his shoulders to gain leverage, ferally she moved against his rythem. _I'll show him something else._

It was almost indiscernible amongst his hitching breathes, perhaps she had only imagined it, but for a second she swore she heard him moan her own name, but she had no time to dwell upon it. The next moment she gasped out as she felt the thick, astute fangs plunge deep into her neck, but the pain was fleeting, replaced by a wild seizure of rapture that seized her loins. D howled against her neck, pulling the small of her back closer to his hips and thrust deep inside of her. The Nymph responded to him, clutching his body tightly and simply road with him, the joy mounted and mounted, it seemed an eternity until all they found the dizzying pinnacle, and each screamed out in perfect synchronization of the other.

When last exhausted D lay down onto her shoulder, and gently pressed his left hand to her wounded throat, those marks disappeared as thought they were never there but the twin marks he'd left on her throat three months before still remained, tiny glaring little scars. For a long time they lay there quietly, unmoving and unspeaking, Luna softly caressed his wild hair and beat down the urge to be the first to speak. D closed his eyes and slept for a time, remaining lightly enfolded her embrace, but this time rest alluded the Nymph and she remained wide awake, a million thoughts racing through her head, and all of them centering around a single letter.

An hour or two later D awoke to a slight sense of unfamiliarity, it had been so long since he'd slept in the comfort of a bed that its warmth and softness caught him quite off guard. The memory eluded him of the last time he'd used a pillow instead of his saddle, and a blanket rather than his coat, however what was strangest was the feel of hands twisting through his hair. This he was unsure what to make of.

"What are doing?" he asked sternly, his voice holding no hint of weariness.

"Oh! I am sorry, I didn't think you'd wake up for a bit…" but the Nymph's twisting motions through his hair did not stop. "I was just adding some beads to your hair, you look so pretty when you wear them you know."

D sat up, and pressed a hand to his scalp, not feeling a few spare strands of silver beads, but at least fifty heavy strands. He scowled at the Nymph.

"What?" she asked innocently, "Your pretty enough to pull that off."

"Don't be silly." He rankled, and began to undo one of the braided strands.

She scoffed slightly, "I don't understand it, you can file your nails, but when your girlfriend wants to doll you up you have a problem with it."

"I wasn't filing them." He bit back, frustration edging into his voice as the knots refused to loosen, "I was honing them. I can use them as weapons." D had been referring to an incident the last time he'd returned to her side, and she'd caught him shaping his nails when he thought her asleep.

"D, that is complete bullshit. I don't doubt you could tear out someone's heart if you wanted to, but how do explain the fact that your nail file was jeweled? And what about the nail polish I found in your saddlebag later? Were you trying to blind the Nobles with whore-red polish? And how about that rose scented colonge your always wearing?"

He regarded her, slightly dumfounded at this revelation. For a moment Luna thought that he might admit to his vanity, but rather he leaned forward, held her and kissed her, the perfect diversionary tactic.

"What do you dream of D?" when she parted it seemed the words had left her mouth before she could stop them. It was a question that had been one of a million questions she'd bit back in fear of his cold demeanor.

At first she was meet only with his trademark silence, so much that she thought she'd deeply offended him as he regarded her stonily and lay back down on his pillow, perhaps two minutes passed before she received an answer. "Peace."

"I thought so," she sighed with relief, "is that why you retrurn to me?"

She was hardly suprised when he did not chose to answer this question.

"D, you know you don't have to go back out there on the Frontier, not today, not ever." She began, nervously daring to meet his eyes, but this did no good. He regarded her with that same steely expression he usually wore. "If you where to give it up…"

"Don't." was his cold reply. "I won't. Not until he's dead."

She flinched as though utterly frightened at that response, "I know. I am only saying…"

"I want to give it up. I hate every moment of my life. The only rest I know is death, and even that is temporary. But I won't stop. I don't know anything else. So long as he lives, Luna, there can be no rest, no room for dreams. He'll crush them all."

Another shiver passed through heart, again, he'd said her name.

"Are you so sure of that? Why would your father do that to you? His perfect creation? You've been hunting him for 9,000 years, longer than a mortal could possibly imagine…but are you hunting him, or hunting for absolution?"

He said nothing, and only turned away from her, and in time he slept again.

Luna slept very little the rest of the night, but sat up gazing sadly at his form wreathed in the moonlight. She wished fervently that she could wrap her arms around him without fear of being pushed away, and to her memory this had been the first time that he'd not held her. Her heart now ached from sorrow, rather than rapture, her eyes swam with tears but she would not allow them fall. _I've got to be strong…strong enough to love a Hunter. Nobody said that it would be easy to love him. I knew this….damn it why did I have to go and speak my mind?_

In time she curled against him and slept fitfully, certain that she'd been dreaming when she next opened her eyes. She saw that it was now daylight and D was standing before her, fully dressed and he bent forward and kissed her forehead. He'd taken all but one of the beaded strainds from his hair.

" I didn't say that you were wrong." He said emotionlessly. " I've got to go now."

She raised her face and smiled up at him, wanting to kiss him but again holding back. "I'll wait here for you to return, D. I'll always wait for you, if you want to come find me."

He took her hand, smiled just slightly down at it. " I'll return. I love you."

There were two disbelieving gasps then, the first breathless and from the Nymph, the second hoarse and issuing from D's left hand. He said nothing more as he turned around and left the room, his black cape fluttered in his wake before it to disappeared from sight.

* * *

D however had only stepped outside for a second or to before he paused and dropped his eyes down onto the worn, cracked walkway of the village. With his eyes down he could not see the brilliant sunlight, the strutting chickens that had just awakened for the day, the sleepy eyes of farmers and their wives rising for another day in the of toiling mindlessly, and happily in the fields. They had no care of Hunting, of slaying, of the Sacred Ancestor. It was far easier for D to walk obliviously through their simple existence with his hat pulled low, and his eyes downcast.

But now D could not walk, he merely stood outside of Luna's door, frozen. Parted from the woman whom he knew he loved.

_It's not as though I have never loved before. I have. I loved you Mother, and I loved Lina, the girl who like you was full of life, life that was crushed by __**him. **__They were taken from me. I loved Lelia Markus enough to save her from the curse of hunting. I loved Doris Lang, I loved her all her life but I never returned to her. Now, I am returning. I am dreaming._

"Hey! Hey Pretty Boy, do you mind if I have some say in this?" piped up the countenced carbuncle.

D lifted his hand, and faced the symbiote.

"Do it. Do it now. She's right. This isn't about him anymore…I think you stopped chasing after Daddy-O years ago, all your running from now is yourself, from your hopes and dreams. All because you can't let go of what happened to Mina. Well let go, damn it! She chose her own path, now you have to stop paying for that mistake."

After a long, heavy moment D nodded, "She chose her death. She chose temptation over me, after I vowed to protect her, but I couldn't protect her from herself."

"There you have it, stud." The countenced carbuncle grinned, "9,500 years of misery in one sentence."

D nodded ever so slightly, then he turned around back and silently entered the door.

The Nymphs silver head lifted ever so slightly, her mouth opened with shock, she was dressed now again in her simple green tunic. "D…"

"I needed to ask you, what are your dreams?" he began softly.

"Mine?" she answered mystified, " Uhh…well, they are simple dreams really. Comfort. Marriage. Children."

"I like that." D nodded, and he slowly he pulled the elegant long sword out of it's sheath across his back. The blade hummed through the pregnant air. "May I share them with you?"

The swords song was cut abruptly short as D carelessly dropped the blade to the ground, where it clattered as though in protest, then fell silent.

Luna started in astonishment down at it, the up at D, who remained as unspoken and unreadable as he always was. "Does this…I am not certain…" yet it was quite clear what it meant. D would never cast away his beautiful blade so carelessly, the blade he lived his life by unless he'd rejected the life it bound him to.

"I am done."


	10. Interlude Part Three: Perfection

**Illusions**

_Bit of a long chapter, but I am proud of it. I've been just itching to introduce __**him**__ to the story, and here we are. Yes, I made D a little angry emo in this, but keep in mind, he was still a teenager._

* * *

**Interlude Part Three: Perfection**

_"Yes, I too can love, you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?" – Dracula , Bram Stoker_

_**Three Years Later**_

Twilight had just settled firmly over the sleepy fishing village of Cthulhu when the stranger entered the bar. All eyes turned to the tall, black robed figure not just for the robe that aroused their curiosity and suspicion, but the fact that he was truly a stranger. The bartender narrowed his eyes as the stranger sat down before him, but the fear eased from his face as the man raised a bejeweled hand and lowered his cowl. Although a bit pale, the man was handsome, his features were a bit sharply shaped, his mouth very narrow, but he seemed innocent enough, his eyes were a bright sapphire blue. His dark hair was long, and hung in a perfect sheet down to his shoulders, although the pointed widows peak was a bit unnerving. The stranger nodded to the barkeep, "Greetings", his accent was thick, musical and yet the barkeep couldn't quite place it.

He nodded, "Aye, greetings you to stranger. What will it be?"

"Shangri-la wine, please."

The barkeep frowned, "Odd choice, that's exactly what our mayor orders the few times he's stopped by here. Wouldn't happen to be related…look the hell of a lot like him to."

The stranger smiled ever so slightly, " Coincidence my friend. I am nothing more than a traveling bard, but I seem to have lost the song of the muses as of late. I am searching for inspiration. This little village here seemed charming enough to provide such a thing. "

The barkeep barked with laugher, "Oh well lad, I cannot say Cthulhu can help you there. No sirrie, you're the first visitor we've seen in about three years and you can bet you'll be the talk of the town for months to come even if you stay just for yer wine. Little has happened here worthy of a bards tale, laddie." The barkeep said as he handed the stranger a tall glass of the blood-red wine.

"Well, do to tell still. I am eager to know all knowledge, my friend." The handsome man extended his bejeweled hand. It was most peculiar, to see such a thin, pale hand adorned in such gorgeous jewels set in silver and gold. Certainly not the dress of a bard. The barkeep did not take it. The man shrugged, "I am Vlad Tepes but you may call me Dracula."

That name, the name that would have struck fear even into the most seasoned of Hunter prompted no reaction from the barkeep, nor anyone else in the bar. Perhaps they were ignorant of such legends, or perhaps there was something more to the vivid blue eyes, and haunting, yet enchanting aura about the dark stranger.

"I am Uther." The barkeep answered in a grunt, "Well there is precious little to tell you see. The town began 200 years ago as a fort for soldiers as they fought the beast that once dwelled along these shores. The Cthulhu they called it, t'was how we got our name. But after that, there ain't much to tell. Droughts, small hauls, fevers, once a bite from a mothman, but little of interest ever happened to us, until three years ago."

"And what was that?" said Vlad, sipping at his wine.

"Two strangers come into town…" the barkeep lowered his voice then, although all the bar had suddenly shifted their eyes to him with rapt attention. "Desmond and Lucy Underhill. They were fresh from their wedding it seemed, they kissed as they road in on their horse and still wore flowers in their hair. We figured it must have been the glow of young love that gave them such shimmering beauty…only that beauty has never faded. As yeh can see from this place, this village aint what you call pretty. Just bout everything in this place is growin' barnacles, and the men and women aren't exactly rich, we just don't have enough to put much thought into our looks. We spend far to much time in the sun, and the sea, neither are forgivin' on vanity, but those two…you aint never seen a pair as gorgeous as the two of them. The women gazed at Desmond like they had no soul, no mind of their own…he's beautiful to enough to make even me light headed, and I aint no boy lover mind you. He looks like moonlight made flesh, but Lucy on the other hand…she would be sunlight. The men gazed at her all the same, I coulda sworn the moment we saw her every man in town got hard. They had to be immortals of some type.

'With Lucy it was undeniable, with that silvery hair of hers, the way even thinking over her makes you want to fuck, and her healing skill, she was without a doubt a Nymph.

'But Desmond, well it wasn't so easy. Nobody knows what he is, but it ain't human…"

"Goddamn dhampir!" came a harsh male grunt from beside Vlad. Vlad turned his eyes curiously to the man. While they were striking, almost inhuman eyes, the barkeep thought they also seemed very crushed, very saddened. Perhaps it was only the faint lines around them and across his face that gave him that impression.

"Shut yer mouth! That's our mayor yer talking about there!" the barkeep rasped harshly at the patron.

"But he is a dhampir! I seen the points in his ears, I seen the blood light in his eyes!" piped up another voice, this time an elderly woman's.

"Shut it Rosie!" cried another voice. "You don' know what yer talking about, the point in his ears are Elvish for sure, Lucy is a Nymph after all!"

"I once heard of a Hunter round these parts, " the bearded drunk that had first spoke up grunted, " fierce, and beautiful as could be. Aye, the Vampire Hunter D. The best. Not human, vampire…or even dhampir. He was better than them all. Some say that the Hunter D was killed at last…but I say three years since anyone has seen him, and a beautiful mayor named _D_esmond is a little to fuckin' suspicious!"

"Just shut it Stephen!" Uther the barkeep growled, then returned to the stranger, " Yeh see this is really all we have to talk about any more. Now when young Lucy and Desmond arrived they didn't speak to a soul, they just bought a nice cottage, and a fishing boat and the very next day, Lucy began to heal the sick un's and Desmond was out on the sea. He caught the amount of fish that ten men working tirelessly for three days would catch in only six hours, speared enough whales in a day to keep us all well feed, and heated for a month. It was little shock that in four months he became head fisherman…we had such a surplus we've began to actually trade with other villages! Never don' that before, yeh see! It was little surprise that last year the village elected Desmond Underhill as mayor, he was reluctant but he accepted the post.

'He's honestly strange as could be, quite, can't say I've heard him say anything but a sentence or two every so often, but he's noble, and loyal to his wife. He's begun to rebuild all of Cthulhu…even brought in doctors and teachers from the Capital! I know sure as hell he ain't no dhampir! He spends countless hours in the sun, and it doesn't faze him. And I seen him fall in the water, he swims as just as well as any one. No dhampir can swim.

'So there yeh have it laddie…not exactly a story worthy of a bard, but it's the best this town has to offer."

Vlad Tepes merely smiled, sipping on his wine yet again. "No, I found it quite regaling, thank you, Uther."

* * *

Vlad sat back against the stiff, old armchair next to the window of his cheap little inn. The moonlight was pouring through the curtains, and resting right on his thin, jeweled hand. Each finger was adorned with priceless rings but it was the large diamond that now caught it gaze. In the past 9,500 years he'd never removed that diamond, and now it seemed to glimmer somehow brighter than ever before. As if it knew that inspiration it had forged was now so very near. _He_ was near.

He smiled down at the stone, "It was here that I first saw your face, _D_. I've dreamed of you every night, every moment and ever since that day."

With the utterance of that single letter his blue eyes had become a glaring ruby red.

Long ago it had been the moonlight beaming down upon the diamond that had caught Vlad Dracula's eyes, a glitter brighter than the one that the stone usually threw off. And for the barest moment Vlad swore that he could see a face deep within the diamond, a gorgeous, perfect face. A face that was not of man, or vampire or any other known living creature. He had glimpsed on complete perfection. He had glimpsed upon the face he knew would one day be the fact of his true son.

_Vlad Dracula had known when he saw the child's cherubic face, and fanged mouth that child was his true heir, had known it even before it passed his cruel tests but he did not see the face of his son until his son had reached the age of 14. Dracula had grown weary of Mina's useless fleeing, but he'd been content enough to let her run. His son needed to see the human world, needed to learn its flaws and triumphs, the cruel way the Nobles ruled it, needed to know that was not where he belonged. But now the time had come, it was time for his heir to take his place upon the throne, to know the splendor of the Nobility. _

_It was easy enough to find them; he could smell the terrified scent left behind, a path of fear that cut itself through the heart of the Frontier, from pathetic human village to another pathetic village. The moon had again been brilliant and the stars were jewels set in the ink of the sky when Dracula had pushed the flimsy door of their hovel open. His heart lurched dizzyingly as he glimpsed upon the sight of her, Mina Murray the Fair crouching before her hearth. Her pale skin was almost translucent, and devoid of flaw, save for age. Her form was still so exquisite, her black hair a curtain that fell to the floor, the eyes as black as death and that regarded him with no fear, no regret, only twisting sorrow._

"_My Queen…" he gasped._

"_I thought you were dead…Jonathan, Quincy, Van Helsing, they killed you…I thought you were dead…"_

_He only grinned baring his permanent fangs, "If you thought that than you would not have been running. That was a pathetic attempt to end me and take my son, calling your old lover and his friends. I am beyond death Mina. Where is he? Where is my son? It's time."_

_The pain deepened in her eyes, "He's out hunting for my dinner. He never eats himself, but he doesn't need the blood much either…"she dropped her face then, a sob catching in her throat._

"_Why did you do it?" He sighed moving further inside. "Why did you take him from me? You didn't need to suffer like this my love…"_

_Her face flew up, rage suffusing it, "You killed them all! All of them…I…couldn't possibly…you should not have let me see his face! I knew he deserved better than a monster! Than a vampire! I've tried so hard to create a comfortable life for the lie that we created, Vlad you cannot take him from me!"_

_The Sacred Ancestor's face twisted with pain, she'd been the only one to ever call him Vlad. For millennia the name Vlad Tepes had been forgotten in cosmos of history. _

"_Your coming with us Mina, I am incomplete without you my queen, And our Dracula is not a lie, I love you, with all my soul. He is a child of love."_

_She drew back from him, a single gorgeous tear falling down her face, "No! No you have no soul, and D cannot love! I have beaten it from him, he will not make the same mistake I made." _

"_D? Is that what you call him?" he laughed lightly, " Your wrong Mina, we never made a mistake. The future is ours now, it's time for beauty and love to rule the earth again." he moved ever closer to his former bride._

"_No!" she whimpered, holding out her hand as he descended over her. "Stay away from me!"_

"_Mina…"_

"_No."_

"_Mina…" he bent low over her, his eyes were blazing red with bloodlust. The dark of his shadow fell across her bewildered face, and sensual form, for a brief moment fear sparkled in her onyx eyes, then she leapt up and rather than her fists meeting him, it was her lips that fell upon his. _

_Desperately Dracula pulled her into his arms, and tighter into the kiss that was softer than the silk of any of the coffins he'd lain in these past 14 years, her arms were warmer than any of the concubines he'd taken. Wildly he wrestled her down into her pitiful little bed, and worshipped her body with his cruel lips. It was Nymph blood that made her so beautiful, many generations ago there had been a Nymph in her family line, but that blood should have been bred out of her. But somehow it showed through in her although she remained so perfectly human and mortal. The random display of Fae blood in her genes was what had entranced him, but it was her soul that bound him to her. _

_Mina's clear and salty tears mingled with Dracula's own bloody ones as their bodies joined together and they surrendered to their lust. The ecstasy of holding her again in his arms, of being inside of her was almost overwhelming. She shivered and writhed beneath him, her lips kissing his frantically and her hands tracing over the forgotten planes of his near perfect body. Nothing else mattered to her, not her loneliness, nor her sorrow, or even D. _

_The wild gasp that spilled from her lips when he bit down into her neck was of pleasure rather than pain. She'd so loved to feel his dark kiss. He roared out in delicious agony the moment he tasted her sanguine wine, sweeter than any blood he'd ever before known, and the collapsed onto her shoulder in the throes of orgasm. He drank of her until she could surrender no more; Mina pulled his face back to hers and kissed his lips tenderly, tasting her own blood. _

_It was then that D had entered the room. For Vlad Dracula there could have been no greater moment to look upon his creation than right after having loved the most beautiful mortal creation. _

_He was so close to manhood, and already utterly gorgeous, the sight of his elegant features and pale skin made even the Sacred Ancestors heart race. The boy was already very tall, and muscled, he carried a full grown buck deer over his shoulders without any sign of discomfort. He had Mina's onyx black eyes, her unruly black hair that was hanging to his chin. The child was a mirror image of both him, and Mina but perfected, flawless._

'_D…" Mina moaned turned her eyes from him._

"_Dracula, my son." Vlad said in admiration, rising and pulling is clothing back on. "I've dreamed of you, every day…"_

"_Get out of here…" the child spoke, his voice was low and steely. _

"_Now now son, that is not the proper way to address a Nobel, but of course you would not know that. You've never even meet a Nobel now have you?"_

"_GO!" the boy suddenly roared, the deer carcass thudded to the floor and the boy rose to his full height, his muscles tensed. _

'_Have you seen him yet? Your left hand?" Dracula inquired. _

"_What!" the child snapped waspishly, and descended upon his father. _

"_D! Please don't…I am sorry D, but don't hurt him…don't hurt…"_

"_SHUT UP YOU WHORE!" D shrieked in utter fury._

_Mina whimpered and dropped her head. Dracula winced at his adolescent outburst, and whacked him smartly upside the head, "That is not way to address your mother, boy!"_

_The young Dracula didn't even wince at the blow, rather he lashed wildly out and threw his fist into Dracula's face. The Nobel gasped and sprawled backward, a livid bruise rose on his face, along with a smile, "Impressive. I cannot remember the last time that one was fast enough and strong enough to strike me. I've done well it seemed, you were my only success…"_

_D was quivering with hate, but his eyes swept up toward his mother and caught sight of the livid wounds on her neck, "What are you going to do now, you stupid weak little…" he trailed off clearly unable to stomach calling his mother another terrible name. _

"_Don't worry about that son. Long ago I gave you mother a virus of my own creation that combats the effects of vampirism, it kills most of it's patients however, but she survived. She's immune." _

_Again D's fists flew, but Dracula was expecting it and he ducked away, than rose to his feet. "Calm down now Dracula, its time to go. You have much to learn if you want to become my heir…"_

"_DON'T CALL ME THAT NAME!" he raged and stormed over to his mother. He yanked her easily out of the bed, mindless of the fact that she was naked, "Come on you weakling, we're going!"_

"_D, please!" she cried._

_In the moment Dracula shot forward, it was only because he was distracted and young that D did not fend off the attack, by the time that his steely fists rose and pounded into his fathers face, shattering all the bones within it D had already felt the pinprick on his shoulder. Instantaneously D began to grow weak, and then as if all the strength had left his body he sank down onto the floor and closed his eyes._

"_What did you to him?" Mina whimpered pitifully as she crouched by his side._

_  
"Nothing, it's a harmless drug that my kind take when they must slumber at day, but lay awake in their coffins." He answered her; his wounds were already healing, and then he took his son into his arms. _

_As much resentment as the boy held upon first meeting, he did not fight once he arrived at Castle Dracula. It seemed as if all life, and all drive had simply melted away from him once he was brought to the throne room and saw Mina sitting in her rightful throne, her hair braided and her elegant gown snowy white in the candle light. Her dark eyes were lowered, never again would she willingly meet D's gaze. Her shame was too great._

"_Sit" Dracula bid to his son, and silently D did so. With the wave of his hand Dracula summoned a girl from the very shadows. She was an ugly, and lank haired servant, but her eyes gazed at D with the most fixated, soulless expression. Dracula grinned triumphantly; he'd created an Adonis, and creature to beautiful for mortal eyes. "Kneel to your new prince," he bid the girl._

_Meekly she did so, her glazed eyes never leaving D's, even has her hair swung back from her shoulders and bore her tender throat. Dracula could tell from the lust that flooded his sons' continence that he had never before taken a human victim. Instantly the blood light leapt into his eyes, and immense fangs jutted past his lips. "Go on son, do anything you wish to here. It is your right as a Nobel, for now at least." _

_D rose and moved over to the girl's side. He cast a glance over to his mother. Why wasn't she protesting this? When would she rise to strike him and curse him for his lust? She refused to even meet his eyes, never before had she hung her head so low. "What is your name?" he asked the girl in his steely voice._

"_Jessica…" she gasped in a husky voice, rising to her feet. _

"_Jessica. I am sorry." He bid her softly, and then he lashed with lightening speed down onto her neck and bit. She gasped feebly and collapsed into D's arms, her hands weakly caressing his arms as thought savoring this dark intimacy before she fell completely limp. _

_Dracula laughed at the glorious scene, urging his son on, while Mina dropped her head somehow lower, faint sobs spilling from her lips. In time D dropped the girl and collapsed back onto his gilded throne, panting hard, his face was flushed with light and satisfaction, and in a movement as cold as ice, he lifted his fingers to his lips and sucked away the last of the blood. _

"_Another" he demanded. _

_Indeed the boy adjusted well to the life of the Nobility, quickly picking up on the complicated studies of chemistry, physics, genetics, and alchemy that most vampires excelled in. By sixteen the boy was already running his own experiments. He learned vampire etiquette and civilization just as quickly, but with it he also evolved a common vampiric lust for whoring and blood. It was a trait that Dracula would strike him, and punish him for again and again. Dracula had little patience for Nobility that saw humans only as their dinner, and women as their objects. No ruler worth his weight in gold treated his subjects like minions, or his women like slaves. _

"_How many times must I tell you this Dracula!" he roared as he seized the boy by his hair and drug him from his room. It was a horrific sight inside, human and vampire concubines lay in a twisted, bloodied mass upon his bed, each of them dead or almost completely drained of blood. "When you treat humans like ants you create an enemy far more powerful than you can perceive. We are but transient rules of their world, we are meant merely to perfect them. That is why you were created! And when you fuck women and throw them away to rot, you create sons that will rise to avenge you!" _

_But the boy was stubborn, and headstrong. A natural leader. "I want nothing to do with your stupid plans for humanity! Let them rot in the wastelands for all I care!"_

_He struck him wildly with the butt of his sword, but D didn't even flinch. He only glared at his father with hate filled, ruby eyes. Never once had those eyes gazed on him in the affection that he'd been dreaming of these past years._

"_You took whores," the boy seethed, "I seem to recall something about you created a thousands, maybe millions of sons…"_

"_Failures I did not let live." He replied evenly, "Where you get this insatiable bloodlust I do not know, but you have no pressing need for a constant flow of it. If you fail me son, I will have to kill you. And don't make me do that, I love your mother. I need not to hurt her like that once more. Now get rid of this mess."_

"_Make Mother get rid of it." D seethed and stalked swiftly away. He knew what would happen, he would grab his mother and force her to look upon the carnage that he'd created and smile at her. Perhaps that was the root of his carousing, he wanted poor Mina to suffer for her misfortune to have loved a vampire. She never looked up on him any more, never lifted her beautiful face. When Dracula kissed her, held her and made love to her, her soul seemed detached and her touch empty. She still breathed but she was as dead as dead could be. Over the years Dracula had begun to see a touch of madness to her eyes, a strange tic to her movements and disjoint in her words._

_As a last ditch effort Dracula arranged for a marriage between his 19 year old son and a regal 2,000 year old vampire princess named Lily Odette, hoping a spark of love might snap him out of his anger. Emotionlessly, D agreed to the union. _

_By the time the grand masquerade that heralded his wedding had arrived, Mina the Fair had gone completely mad. _

Dracula's attention became rapt as he heard it just outside of his window, a musical voice that could only belong to that of a Nymph.

For a fleeting instant he saw them, the Nymph and the dhampir prince strolling listlessly thought the moonlight, speaking of inane mortal matters. He recognized that Nymph's silvery white hair, she must have been of the Asyln Nymphs, one of the very first he'd created. This match pleased the Sacred Ancestor, it was only fitting that an immortal take a equally deathless lover, but a thread of rage gripped him as he saw D reach down and take the her hand in the same mindless yet affectionate way he'd often taken Mina's. She's been his truest love…

His lips curled back in a fanged snarl, "I was content to just let it go D…I believe in second chances. I wanted you to be the humans messiah for that second chance…but you are the reason my bride is dead. And I taught you that you must pay for your mistakes." His eyes gleamed brighter in the darkness.


	11. Chapter 11: The Crimson Eye

**Illusions**

_Note: Not the strongest chapter I've ever written, but the plot thickens. As you can see I have little faith in marriage...ah well, just enjoy! Chapter 11 of 14._

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**Chapter 11: The Crimson Eye**

"_I still would not want to dream about you because in the end I'd wind up crying – no two ways about it." - Vampire Hunter D: The Stuff of Dreams._

D awoke to the feel of needle sharp claws sinking mercilessly down into his chest, followed by a thunderous rumbling sound. But rather than jumping upward and tensing with battle, he only raised his hands and rested them in the beast's furry white head. The cat purred louder, and sank down onto him, nuzzling his face. He scratched it the way it so loved behind its ears, and shifted his gaze to where Luna still lay asleep. Exhaustion bore faint shadows on her slumbering face, the past few weeks she'd been suffering from the more mortal aspects of early pregnancy. Her own golden colored cat was asleep on her pillow.

She opened her eyes a moment later and smiled at him, "Good morning," she bid him, although the words were more force of habit. Since D had become the mayor he'd been able to adapt a sleeping schedule more natural to him without any suspicions. It was twilight now. He found he missed the simplistic life of a fisherman, but he did not miss the raw agony of the sun upon his skin, or the near constant battle with sun sickness he began to suffer toward the end of it. He'd been forced to limit the amount of sun protection he wore…any one that wore to much was easily singled out as a dhampir.

It was a fragile life they'd created here in Cthulhu, nobody knew the name D and Luna, and nobody knew for certain what they were although rumors were abound, but for the most part they spoke to nobody, and merely kept their heads bowed against the horrors of the past.

"Are you okay?" D asked Luna gently.

She nodded, "Hell of a thing for a Nymph to be suffering from, "morning sickness" but it happens. I think it's over for now at least."

He lifted a hand from the cat, which he'd aptly named Fluffy, then wrapped his arm around Luna's shoulders. She shifted and lay down on his chest. For a minute he relished the simplicity of the moment, never knowing he'd know the simple mortal joy of holding his wife in his arms, knowing that his child was growing in her womb and a cat purring on his chest.

"Do you miss it at all, hunting?" Luna softly inquired, although not for the first time.

"No." he replied

She rose and kissed him softly, Fluffy mewled in protest but D ignored the cat and lightly pushed it off his chest, and raised his hand to her face, deepening the kiss.

Moments later they lay entwined in passion, and when the flames subsided D kissed her lips that where still faintly bleeding for him, then laid a hand on the Nymph's belly. There was no visible sign of the child, but easily enough he could sense it quickening into life, feel the rapid beating of its heart.

"I want to name her Wilhelmina, if it's a girl." He said simply.

"Of course" she nodded.

Without a further word D turned his back to her and slept again.

Luna remained awake, and merely stared at his gorgeous figure haloed in the moonlight. Still his beauty was still so unworldly, so sinful in the dull, and quite life they now led. His skin was darker, and more human looking, his hair was tamer as well and fell down to his shoulder blades, but the darkness of his nature, the bitter nature of his soul still remained evident in his eyes. Luna longed to wrap her arms around him, to lie on his chest and to be lulled to sleep by the sound of his heart but she dare not violate him with such affection. She knew well that he would not respond to even her most dramatic of affections, not even to refuse them. He merely lay like an exquisite marble statue, awakening for her only when he felt like it.

She rose from the bed and moved to a small writing desk, began to listlessly scribble down complicated potions of healing in a leather-bound notebook, but soon enough she found that her pen was straying from such menial thoughts, and to matters of the heart.

_I dreamt it again yesterday. I am certain that the child I am to bear will be a girl, because I've seen her so often in my dreams. She is gorgeous beyond any creature I've ever seen, a Nymphir. She has D's refined features, and his hair, but my eyes. And those eyes bear such sadness I feel my heart is going to burst every time that I see them. She hangs her head low to the ground, so low I've rarely seen her perfect face. She's beaten down, hopeless, and submissive, a creature to be pitied, a creature afraid of everything she sees in the world…but most especially of her father. _

_As the days, and weeks, then the years pass I find myself growing more afraid of D as he slips deeper and deeper into the frozen silence that he bore when we first meet. The Heart Bind holds little sway over him once again, I cannot recall the last time I saw a vision of his past and I am certain he feels no connection to me any longer…otherwise he could know of these treacherous fears. I've seen it budding, like a garden blooming in spring…his anger and his resentment towards me. He is stifling beneath this menial, and trivial life, this life I was for some reason longing for…all he's ever known is immortality, and hunting. He cannot stay in one place, he will always move on…but now I've gone and bound him to this place with a child! _

_For now he is overjoyed at the thought of a child, I've seen the way he adores children, but that will fade. I have long lost hope that any force upon this earth can spring D from his frozen quiet, and I was a fool to try it. Wilhelmina will know only his silence, and his bitter indifference, his discontent. She'll strive continually for his affection, for his approval and love and receive nothing in return. Just like me. And what sort of mother will I be? I will be only the terrified and submissive woman I am now…hardly a figure of strength for her. _

_I cannot deny that I fear him any longer. Vampire Hunter D maybe dead to the world, but these past years I know that he's gone nowhere. He lurks deep within his emotionless eyes, that reflect only a demon-haunted darkness, and I can feel him boldly in his touch and his kiss. D doesn't know anything else but hunting, as desperately as he tries. Every so often I'll see a spark of warmth in his eyes, I see it when he fights to make Cthulhu prosperous, when he gazes upon children and every so often when we make love, but for the most part D is soulless. How I'd hoped to save him from this very fate…I seem to have forgotten that immortality holds no sway over mortal occurrences such as this, such as love dying like a rose in winter. I was blinded by love, now I am blinded with fear…_

At that moment there was a knock at the door, Luna abandoned her thoughts, stowing them quickly away and answered the door. It was one of the village boys, along side of his father. The boy was in tears and clutching his bloodied wrist, and his father, the same bearded drunk from the bar wore a deep scowl on his aged face.

"Miss Lucy," he nodded, "hate to bother you at this hour, but it seems Billy has gone got himself bit by 'er wild dog."

"Come on in" she answered and opened the door wide for the pair. The home that D and Luna had made together was rather small, but cozy in it's furnishings. The boy moved eagerly to the fireplace and stared with rapt eyes up at the elegant, crescent longsword that now hung above their fireplace.

Luna sat the boy down beside the hearth and began to clean the wound, humming softly as she did so, mitigating the boy's pain with her song.

"Miss Lucy, was Mayor Underhill a Hunter before he came here!" said the boy, unblinking as he stared at the sword.

Luna feigned a laugh, 'No, no he was merely a laborer looking for work wherever he could find it. That sword is merely an antique we found at the shop."

"He's rather strong for a mere drifter." The father grumbled, looking at the sword distastefully.

"Desmond is full of surprises." said Luna, her voice rising slightly as though in song. Stephen the Drunk blinked as though utterly confused and then dropped the subject entirely.

"Billy, these wounds are awful big for a mere wild dog, are you certain it wasn't a bronze wolf, or worse?" the Nymph stopped humming and looked up at the boy in concern.

The boy shrugged, "I don't know…it looked like a huge, grey dog. I went over to pet it, and it snapped and bit me then it ran off."

"You know better than to be petting strange dogs young man," she chastised softly pressing a pre-made salve to the angry wounds, a frown still marring her face. A moment later the door to the bedroom opened and D appeared, wearing a black tunic. His long hair didn't appear the least bit disheveled, and his eyes showed no hint of weariness. Even the slightly humorous fact that he still clutched the white cat in his arms didn't mar the beauty of his entrance.

"Hello Mayor Underhill!" the boy piped up, bright eyed.

Stephen merely nodded.

"Billy, Stephen. " D nodded to the two of them, "Let me see that bite." He said to the child.

The child proudly held it out to D, "You shoulda seen me Mr. Underhill, I wrestled dat big mean wolf to the ground, but it turned 'round and tried to take a chunk out my arm, but I kicked…"

"I could hear you in the other room Billy, don't fib." D interrupted the boy lightly, and covered the wound with his left hand. The boy frowned, for a second he could have sworn he heard a tiny, hoarse voice speaking, a voice which the Mayor nodded to and lifted his hand. "Try to be more careful."

'I will!" the child beamed to the former Hunter. Soon enough Luna finished dressing the wound and with only a grunt of thanks Stephen shunted the child away. Once they left Luna turned her concerned eyes to D.

"That was a werewolf bite." He said dispassionately.

Luna nodded gravely, " I thought so…I didn't know what I should say, whether I should have said anything."

"You made the right choice. I'll kill the werewolf tonight, they'll have nothing to worry about…" D suddenly stopped in mid-sentence. For a brief moment she saw the look of intense concentration upon his face and then he flew out of the door, a mere afterimage piercing Luna's sight. The pair had barely begun down the road when D came tearing through the night, and roughly knocked each of them down to the ground. An unearthly howl rent the darkness, and then a massive shape sprang out from the very shadows. D rushed to meet the creature barehanded, and slammed the whole of his body into the mass of fur and claws. He pinned the beast ruthlessly down onto the grass, and grabbed both of it's paws and twisted them right from their sockets. There was a sickening crunch of bone and an eerie howl of this time of raw agony. When the beasts arms feel limply to its sides D next seized it's head in his hands, and which a vicious twist snapped it's neck. The beast fell flaccid, but still weakly struggled beneath him. All this had taken place in the span of under 15 seconds.

Luna was first to break from the shock of the attack and battle, and kicked open a chest next to the door. Inside all manner of weapons and guns rested in case of just such a battle, she seized a long silver stake and tossed it easily over to D. He caught it with a flash of his hand, and slammed it down into the beast's chest. The werewolf gave a dull cry, then shuttered and fell dead, a faint bloody mist jumping from the wound.

The father and child barely had time to witness the scene; the father trembled and glared murderously at D, while the boy cried, "That…that was the doggie! It was…it was…"

"You've nothing to worry about. Go home." D informed them stonily and rose from the corpse.

Luna rushed to D's side; her eyes caught that of the boys and the fathers and she commanded, "Go home now. Don't tell anyone what you've seen.", her voice was strangely operatic. The two took on a look of utter confusion and then turned quickly away, never looking back on the scene.

D stared hard at the creature that bore the unmistakable snout, glaring eyes and fur of a werewolf but D stared at it as if it were something more, something far more terrible. "What is it?" Luna asked after a time, fearing the answer.

"That wasn't just a werewolf, it was a true werewolf."

"That can't be, true werewolves died with the Nobels. They are extinct nowadays."

D's steely eyes remained fixated on the beast, "Not entirely, there are still a few Nobles alive that still keep them as body guards but this is more than that…" D's voice was so cold it sounded as though shards of ice where falling from his lips.

"Then what…"

D gripped the beasts jaw and roughly forced its head backward, the broken spinal column allowed the head to move far to easily and there, just on its neck, akin to where a Nobel might bite was a bare patch of fur. On this patch was a vivid red brand that seemed to be glowing in the darkness. It was shaped like a stylized Egyptian eye that glared crimson. Even the Nymph's heart seized with fear, "The Crimson Eye…" she breathed.

D's body was trembling, but not with fear. His own eyes were glowing red, brilliant with undulated hatred. " The Mark of Dracula." He hissed the words as though they were burning his tongue.

"Maybe it's not what you think…" Luna heard the hoarse little voice from his left hand pipe up hesitantly.

"No. It's exactly what I think." He answered and turned from the scene and back toward the house.

Luna rushed after him, her very soul sick with fear, "D…I…I don't know what this means…"

D's eyes moved toward the fireplace where his longsword now hung, he stood upon the hearth and grabbed the blade from its resting place. The cold steel shimmered brightly in the light, as though it were relishing being back in the Hunter's hand.

"_He_ had an army of werewolves at his command, many centuries ago. Each wore that brand, his mark, and they obeyed his everything whim. This was merely a scout sent to follow us, but he's near…he's very near.'

The Nymph breathed a ragged sigh of fear, "Well…maybe that doesn't mean anything. "

"No." he answered clinching the sword tightly in his hand, "It means everything. He's here to destroy everything we know." He left the room without a glance.

The Nymph followed him. D had opened the closet and already his old wide brimmed travelers hat was perched atop of his head. Angrily he pushed aside clothing in search for his old armor, relics of the life he'd tried to cast away. The Nymph only watched in desperation as the Vampire Hunter D was resurrected before her eyes in his cold splendor. It was as if she'd witnessed a distant, gorgeous memory of the past claw it's way to the present. Somehow the beauty of the dhampir seemed to shimmer in the ancient clothes of his calling, like a diamond that had bet set in an elegant golden band. Silently he slid the blade into the scabbard across his back and he swept out of the bedroom.

"D…"she breathed desperately.

"I must go. I'll finish the job. Your not safe until he's dead." He spoke gelidly, and brushed wordlessly past her toward the door.

Ice now lodged in Luna's heart, stilling it with its claws, "D! D NO! "

The forbidding figure paused and turned back to face the Nymph. The elegant features that made up his silhouette were momentarily marred with sorrow, but in his eyes that hatred still glowed. Hesitantly she took his left hand and brought it to her lips, "Please D, don't do this…we'll go somewhere else. Take on new names, new lives.

For a moment D's fingers closed over hers and then he moved and touched her lips with his own, but only briefly before turning away and pulling his hands from his wife's. "Running away never solves anything. I'll return." He answered unemotionally and opened the front door, and stepped out into the darkness.

For a moment Luna lingered at the opened door, watching him meld into the shadows, then in a passionate rage she cried out to him "WHAT ABOUT ME! WHAT ABOUT WILHELMINA! DAMN IT D…DRACULA! YOU'VE SPENT THE LAST 9,500 YEARS RUNNING…WHATS ONCE MORE, FOR US!"

D never looked back.


	12. Chapter 12 :Abomination

**Illusions**

_Note: Firstly, be warned, **a lot** of violence and blood everywhere. Second, I've done so so much research on vampires…I am obsessed with them. So it was great to be able to use some of that research to create my own little backstory for the Nobility. But it is of course only my own wacky therory.See if you can spot my glaring Harry Potter reference…don't kill me for it, I just thought it would be a nice touch. :) Third: This is a long chapter. Chapter 12 of 14._

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**Chapter Twelve: Abomination**

_"You've washed your hands, you've made that all to clear, you just keep on living your lie." –The Cross, Within Temptation_

For two days D road mercilessly, following the putrid stench of the werewolf easily with his heightened senses, as the symbiote refused to help him, refused to even speak unless to tell him to turn around. D at last dismounted at the edge of a graveyard about a hundred miles from Cthulhu. It was a crumbling and decrepit place, perhaps the relic of a town that had been swallowed whole by sandworms. Now only the cracked and ivy grown memorials remained of the village, here and there massive holes in the earth had been dug and caskets had been opened, the work of either ghouls or grave robbers. 

D tethered his horse to the iron gates and stepped into the graveyard, the scent had grown cold, but there was something far stronger lingering here…a presence that rankled with darkness and intelligence, a presence that would have struck any other man feverish with fear had they sensed this black hole on the Earth. 

"Well, he's here alright! This is it D, go home! Just give it up, this is pointless, let it go…ughhh!" the hoarse little voice was muffled as D clinched his hand so hard that blood welled between his fingers. 

Silently he moved across the graveyard, his crimson eyes scanning every stone and every shadow. Daylight was full but D knew better than to let that overpower his father. He saw it; a vague shadow seemed to detach itself from the statue of a crumbling angel. A sudden sensation of vertigo assaulted D's senses, as well as a thick and overpowering perfume. It seemed as though the whole world where softer, and cooler, and all trace of sunlight had vanished to a mere flicking pinprick that the shadow was holding in its clawed hand. The shadow condensed, and took physical form.

Hated uncoiled like a serpent through the whole of D's body, mind and soul, consuming all he knew as he gazed upon his fathers pale and refined face, so similar to his own. Indeed they where almost mirror image to one another, the only difference was Vlad Dracula's refined and gold embroidered clothing compared to D's shabby coat, the slickness of his hair, and the blue of his eyes. But lines of age undoubtedly marred his face just as they'd begin to mark D's, Dracula's were deeper and crueler. For all the darkness that clung to Vlad Dracula's soul somehow he appeared mortal, and more human than anything else, while D seemed to shimmer in the singular light of the Time Bewitching Incense, beauty unlike the world had ever seen. Indeed that beauty was to good to be true, for the crimson light in his eyes was piercing, and immense fangs jutted past his lips, the terrible aura that imitated from him was almost visible as a wavering cloud of darkness.

Vlad Dracula only nodded at his son, setting the Time Bewitching Incense aside on the base of the statue. "Dracula, my son, it's been to long, far to long for us to ever settle our differences peacefully. And you, Left Hand, as your calling yourself these days, good to see you again. How are you?"

"Well Dracs…argh!" the symbiote was again harshly muffled as D glared at his father. 

A bird flying above the scene dared to swoop lower and investigate the mysterious patch of night swathed over the land, only to thud down to the ground between the two, stone dead, blood trickling from it's beak. It had fallen to D's deadly aura, had a lesser Nobel been standing before him they would have suffered the same fate as the bird. 

In a flash D's hand flew, three arcs of fire left and flew toward the Sacred Ancestor, but with a brush of his hand he'd caught the wooden spears and snapped them like twigs, but one of the fragments he momentarily clutched in his hand. D never took notice of Dracula slipping it into the pocket of his coat. There was an eerie hum thought the artificial night, then a flash of silver fell toward the vampire but Dracula merely stepped aside from the path of D's sword. D stood where the Sacred Ancestor had been, the whole of his body tensed with battle and his elegant long sword unwavering in his hand. 

Dracula was still unarmed, "I do not want for it to be like this." Dracula sighed as through utterly weary, " Vengeance is not something I delight in taking no matter how delicious it tastes, so why not just surrender? Submit to me, and to the throne that you were born for. Forget that menial little village and the Nymph…"

D flew toward Dracula again, leaping high into the air with his sword pointing downward, the hem of his cloak spread wide like mythic bird. A shower of golden sparks rose from the scene as Dracula pulled free his jeweled broadsword from his belt and rose to meet D's blade, his body stumbled upon impact. Even Dracula was to weak to match against D's amazing force, but as their blades locked and their eyes bore into each others their strengths where almost evenly matched. Almost a minute passed before D shifted and another arrow of light flew from his hand. Dracula twisted away, but a second later fell to the ground with a grunt of pain. The wooden needle still smoldered as it seem to grow from his breast, barley an inch from his heart. The thin candlelight could hardly shed light on the scene before D's sword again flew, and this time found it's mark, ripping deep into Dracula's heart and blood flew from the wound and past his fanged mouth. D's vermillion gaze bore down on him and with an armored boot he kicked him in face and forced him down into the dirt, sinking the blade deeper into his flesh so that the sword pinioned his father to the ground. "Die." D growled like fiend.

A weak smile formed on Dracula's lips, his own eyes were now burning ruby and he licked the blood from his lips. " Did you really believe that it would be that easy? That I, the father and scientist that made you immortal would submit to such a mortal flaw myself? You cannot kill me, not unless I tell you how."

"I'll kill you. You'll die a million deaths before you ever know peace…and I will slay you even in the otherworld." D answered back, as calm and frigid as could be. 

A pained laugh rose from the vampire, "I don't deny it…well why don't I make it a bit easier on you. Why fight karma…I have killed millions in my life, I suppose I should have foreseen that I would meet death at the hands of my own son. Now decapitation…that would have slowed me down a bit. Yes, even if you were to stuff my lifeless mouth with garlic, brand a cross on my forehead and toss me into the sea as I am certain your wanting to do, I would live. Now,that would be agony…but I would eventually return. It would not kill me. Now do listen, D. Death would a terrible inconvenience to our meeting. I had hoped that I might convince you otherwise, one last time, that you ought to abandon this sham of a life and rise to be the savior you were fated to be, but you've made it quite clear you've chose the path of denial."

"There is no fate, not for me or for you." D murmured coolly.

"Really…than it was not fate that I was meant to love the most gorgeous innocent woman in all the world and create you? Was it no fate that you found the Nymph and fell in love, a trait that Mina claimed to have forced from your heart? Will you not give that Nymph a chance?"

Again Dracula howled in a torrent of agony as D twisted the blade against his still beating heart, "Don't you dare mention Luna!" D's voice rose ever so slightly in passionate hate. 

"Luna…" Dracula rasped through his pallid lips, "So then you do care for the Nymph. Strange…I've watched you these long millena…so many have offered you their love, their devotion and comfort. What makes the Nymph any different?"

"You know nothing of love!" D growled, leaning ever closer to his eyes.

"If you love her so much, that why are you here, attempting to destroy me? Why not protect her, because I can assure you D…you know how unwise it is to rouse my anger. Unless we battle here in this graveyard until the end of time, than when I defeat you I will destroy her. Her and every pitiful illusion that you've clung to these past three years, denying all that you where meant to be. You had better listen to me…I do grant mercy, I will tell you how to kill me."

"TALK!" D raged, pressing his blade deeper.

"Release me…"

"TALK!" The aura of black hatred that emanated from D was strong enough to kill every living plant life within 12 feet of the warring immortals, strong enough to cause knives of pain to rocket through even Dracula's skull. He quite regretted giving his son the power to manipulate his aura so perfectly…regretted everything about his gorgeous creation. 

"I will…I did not intend for it to be this way, but I know that somehow…someday you will kill me. I've gone and created a God that wants me dead. I will make it a bit easier for you then, I know you'll hear the truth in my voice. You have that handy little symbiote to tell you that."

"Are you finished? Start talking." Sighed D, infinitely impatient.

"Very well. I'll start from the beginning; I was born in 1431 A.D as Vlad Dracul, or Dracula, the Son of the Dragon, in the land of Wallachia. I rose to be the greatest terror that the world had then seen, I killed without mercy, without conscious, andon the slightest whim. I reveled in it, I devised the most atrocious torments possible for my enemies, my civilians, and even the ones I loved, anyone I found unfit in the eyes of God,I am sure you know this, just as you know what my favorite weapon of torture was. Impalement. They called me Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler. Yes…I killed well over 500,000 in only 45 years of mortal life. "

"I know this." Answered D intolerantly, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword. "Now get to the point."

"Patience son! You never had any of that, and you most certainly could use it. Every world I say is relevant." Dracula was no longer biting back against the pain, he merely lay beneath D's blade as though uncomfortable, but he did not struggle. "What I didn't understand was why I craved blood so. I had no desire to consume it as I do now and forever more, but I longed for the sight of it, the scent of it, the feel of it on my skin. There where timee where I was driven to drink it, but it was a taste savored like an occasional fine wine. All I really knew was that true reason I killed so mercilessly was for the blood. Even when imprisoned I impaled and killed rats just to watch their blood pour from their bodies.

"I later learned that it was a disease that caused my blood lust, I am certain you know it, porphyria as the mortal scientists termed it. You know its symptoms well, it caused its victims to become pale, sensitive to the sunlight, occasionally to hallucinate and to crave blood because their body doesn't produce enough. There is it was, my first clue for the genes of light and darkness, the idea that to crave the night was actually a genetic predisposition. But of course then I had no understanding of such things, I thought that my lust was punishment by God for not pleasing him, not killing his enemies. But when I did all that he and his priests asked, followed all his scripture and his teachings I grew frustrated, and angry and in desperation I turned to Satan. The old mortal Gods indeed have a strange way of interacting with the mortal…the God of the Christians turned a deaf ear to my cries and my sacrifices in his name, but the Dragon responded to me in only moments, stalking me in dreams, in sigils, in shadows, and in the eyes of those I killed. I was both terrified, and awed by the great power I'd chosen to honor. Perhaps the God of the Christians isn't as bloodthirsty as so many wars done in his name have turned out to be, or perhaps I was merely genetically predispositioned to communicate with his rival, but no matter what the reason I was at last heard. 

"About a week or so before my mortal death I found myself crying to the night sky, "I need release! I cannot beat much more of this crippling lust, Dragon, do you hear me!"

"He heard me, "Vlad…" spoke a strange, gravely voice, and whipped around to see that a rotting corpse hung high on one of my spears seemed to have sprung to life, the burning red light within the rotting sockets was almost blinding, but I did not shrink away not matter how wildly my mortal heart beat at the sound. "I hear you. I can give you release…or rather power. You can have power beyond mortal imagination, but the blood lust I cannot cure. It is my own fate to shamble though shadows and to drink the blood of the damned, but I can help you. Forever you will crave the blood, but so long as you have it you shall be rewarded with an immortal body. I wish to have you as one of my children Vlad Tepes, you would be greater and wiser and more terrible than any before. Will you accept?"

"Immortality…I'll pay any price!" I pleaded, trying not to look to hard at the corpse, at its terrible eyes and the rotting ligaments of its vocal cords.

"All I ask if your mortal life. You can keep your soul, I have no use for a soulless, and therefore mindless fiend. It's life I thrive on." The corpse rasped, moving feebly on it's spear.

"I nodded. "Take it."

"The corpse however fell silent. 

"It was a few days later that I meet my end, slain by the arrow of one of my own men…a pathetic way for Vlad Tepes to meet his end honestly, but my mortal death was more a transition. For the first time I saw it, as I am sure you have my son, that veiled gateway between the land of the living and the realm of the dead, but that door was closed to me. I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder and I turned around to see the still rotting corpse that had spoken to me before, now free of its stake but decayed even worse. That light was once again shining in its eyes. The horror rose, then died in my ethereal body as the corpse vessel of the Dragon placed its festering hands on my face, and moved forward. Fangs jutted from the yellowed teeth, and paralyzed I let Satan bend down over my neck and drive those fangs into my throat. I was then consumed by a rapturous rush of power, strength and vitality that no mortal can hope to understand. The misty veil faded before my eyes, and I next found myself back on Earth, but I had no mortal body. I was little more than a wraith like spirit indestructible, invisable and thrumming with power. I needed a mortal body to house me. Naturally I searched the world until I settled upon the fresh corpse of the most gorgeous youth that I could find. That is the body that you see now, it changed to suit my powers and had been evolving ever since."

"Little of this is new to me.' Said D in utter annoyance, "that was how vampires were born in the days of old, by making a pact with Satan or a powerful magican, they were little more than malicious sprits that possessed the dead back in the Dark Ages. It wasn't until science began to grip the world that the vampires learned how to evolve to reproduce sexually. I know the story, for the next few millennia you roamed to world, banding together with the vampires and forming underground cults everywhere you lingered. When the holocaust destroyed much of humanity you lead the vampires to greatness, rose again to the throne, but all this is useless. I want to know why you cannot die…although there is nothing wrong with your ability to feel pain, tell me now before I must resort to it."

Calmly Vlad Dracula nodded, "Alright then. All these cenetries I've been trying to perfect our kind, by more over, perfecting myself. I am not content to remain bound by whatever happens to this mortal body that can be easily destroyed, and when science provided few answers to prevent that from happening I turned once more to magic. They are not that different as I am sure you've learned, science and magic…I've watched the way that your able to wield weapons, armor and horses in way that no human can hope to match, all by using a bit of science, knowledge and magic. You can even spring from the dead with the help of that useful carbuncle."

"Oh thank you Dracs! I never really get any credit…ugghff!" the little voice piped up then died. D's eyes remained locked on Dracula.

"My attempts to join a sentient symbiote with myself failed, so I began to delve deep into the mysteries of human and vampire alike to search for immortality, and at last craved upon the walls of the temple R'lyeh not far from your charming little village, I found the spell I needed. The theory is that every time a man kills in cold blood his soul is split in two with the horror that has occurred of the act. The emotions and the energy that is released from such an occurrence can tear a normal man apart, or it can fuel a man to kill further, or in the case of a learned magician it can be used to his advantage. When the magician killed one only needed to have an object nearby, anything at all living or inanimate and one only needed to whisper the right incantation and then a portion of the wizards split soul would be housed forever in that vessel. So long as that vessel remains intact than the wizard could suffer a mortal death, but still survive although they would need a new body. 

Naturally I tried it, and perfected it, but I had my reservations. I'd killed well over a million, and I was a vampire, how much soul have I left to split and house? I changed the incantations and experimented with the properties of it's magic until I was certain, until I could suffer a mortal death, but not require a new body afterwards…I am quite fond of the one I have now. I made 19 vessels and sure enough when I was killed 2000 years after becoming a vampire I survived easily. Like you, I've never truly died, and as you know it's all too easy for the damned to feign death. So long as my vessels remain intact than even if you razed this body to dust I would still regenerate. I have hidden them in temples and landmarks close to my heart all over the world, and I have little doubt that now that I have told you of them that you will find and destroy them. It's shall be easily enough with Left Hand."

D's face remained impassive as ever, although there was a slight twinge of emotion in his eyes, surely the hint of the impossibility of the task of searching every temple, every possible landmark for 19 unknown objects.. "Is that all?" he said coldly.

"No." answered Dracula, "I do want to tell you one more thing, if you'll listen, why I must destroy the Nymph."

D jolted then, made to twist the hilt of his sword again in Dracula's heart but Dracula had bolted upward, clasped his hands on the blade and pulled it swiftly upward, swift enough so that the hilt struck D in face and he stumbled backward. Dracula let his son's sword clatter to his feet, and rose with no apparent pain even as blood flowed down his shirt and he clutched his own jeweled sword. "I have to do it D. You killed Mina, my true love. I am only returning the favor." 

D retrieved his sword so quickly even Dracula failed to see it, and then D was flying at him almost literally, the fabric of his cape was spread out and it's edges seemed to become razor sharp and spread before him like an immense bird. Dracula's sword rose to perry the blows, but not before the fabric had managed to slice into his wrist, and his torso. D moved like the wind, his hands fastening around Dracula's throat and nails driving deep into his flesh, so deeply blood spurted from the vampires neck. "YOU killed her! You'll never touch her, not Luna!"

For only a second Dracula choked, but his own cape flew upward and seized D as though it had a will of it's own and hurled him away. "She's an abomination!" Dracula spat, the crimson now rising to his eyes. "That whole village, and everything you call your life now! Is that what you really want to be a pitiful husband and mayor to a useless hick town, how long are you going to live that lie! Hunting I could tolerate, at least you where destroying the Nobility that needed destroying and paving the way for humans torise againbut this is an affront to nature! You're a prince of Death, Dracula! You were designed only to rule, to kill and to herald a new golden age! You can keep on living in this illusion, or you chose to believe that death is your only purpose!"

D rose silently to his feet, his sword shimmering in the dim light, and again he raced toward Dracula, his cape outstretched and razor sharp. Their swords clashed, and for the next thirty minutes the eerie song of steel clashing against steel and the enraged cries of the other where all that could be heard of the scene. Each of the immortals was nimble on their feet, swifter than the sound of their ringing swords. Each of their blood red eyes matched hue of blood that was soon pouring in rivulets from various wounds on there bodies, both pairs of fangs were present. Dracula had at last begun to pant with the effort of keeping up the relentless combat. He spied D's cape flying out toward where the Time Bewitching Incense burned, a wise move on D's part that he'd attempted several times now but Dracula was swift and slammed the whole of his body into D's. D had braced himself against the impact and hardly moved at all, it was Dracula that stumbled from the hit. D still showed no hint of exhaustion, indeed he was still like the lightening as he slammed his sword through his fathers heart again, a frozen smile playing on his thin lips and Dracula shrieked out in agony. He fell in a limp heap onto the ground. "You will pay D, for what you did to Mina." He rasped like a man at the brink of utter exhaustion.

"What I did? You violated her, and possessed her, you destroyed her the way you've destroyed everyone you've ever looked upon." D whisper coldly, removing his sword from Dracula's body, and placing his iron shod foot down upon his face.

"Well, we've got that much in common at least." Dracula answered with a wry and weary smile benith his boot, "but it was you that drove her to madness with your whoring and your bloodlust. You did it to spite her."

"All she ever wanted was a normal life, a husband and a child…a son that didn't talk perfectly at one year old, who didn't drink blood and played happily in the sunlight. Instead she gets ME!" there was actually a falter to D's steely voice, and a waiver to his eyes as though tears might actually be forming behind the hatred. D's blade came screaming down toward Dracula's neck, but with speed faster than even D was capable Dracula twisted around and caught the blade in the palms of his hands. D didn't even have time to try to pull it free before Dracula had snapped the steel in two, then was reaching inside of the his coat, then sprang upward and D staggered and gave a short roar of agony as long stake of wood Dracula had concealed slammed down into his heart. He'd underestimated the Sacred Ancestor…all this time he'd been holding back on his true power, he'd deceived him…D thudded limply down onto the ground. 

Slowly Dracula rose to his feet, and sneered down at the heap of his son, rolling the body over with the toe of his boot. He was slightly shocked to see that in D's tormented face a sliver of life still remained, but then again he'd designed his dhampir to live through just about anything. "Don't…" D gasped in desperation, "Don't take her…", the light then faded from his black eyes that suddenly seemed as dull as marbles set in stone.

A smile crossed Dracula's fanged mouth, "It's no good D. I gave you a choice, it was unwise to anger me, and you know this."

He seized D's arms and began to drag his corpse across the ground, over to one of the opened graves. The disturbed earth that was churned about the opened lid of the oak casket was fresh, and the skeletal remains of one that had lain in the casket had been tossed carelessly to the side, it was as if this grave had been meant for this purpose.

"Woah! Woah come on there Dracs, hey mistakes were made!" a familiar little voice rose from D's left hand. He shifted D's limp palm and frowned down at the wizened little face that rose there, " Pretty Boy was young, and rebellious but he never meant to hurt her! He never told you about the riverside! Look, Mina was just fragile, you know this! But come on, don't hurt Luna!"

"I like to think of myself a merciful man Left Hand, but I do not forgive, not now and not ever. My son is not immune to vengeance, this must be done!" 

"No! No please don't, come on, she's innocent!"

"So was Mina." The vampire snapped as he pulled D over to the foot of the grave, and paused for a moment, pulling the immense hat from his sons dark head and chuckling a bit as he touched it, then placed it on his own head. "Your such a waste D…you actually used magic to keep this ridiculous thing on your head!", he stripped D's scabbard from his back as well then he grabbed hold of D's corpse and tossed him clumsily down into the casket, his body fell as limp as rag doll down into the hole and crumpled pitifully on it's side.

"No! No wait, STOP!" the horsed voice cried out uselessly. 

"I am sparing you Left Hand, to give him a chance. If love truly conquers all than he will rise on time to stop me." And with that he bent down and snapped the heavy lid of the casket shut, closing off what little light remained of the world above that was reflected in D's lifeless eyes. A moment later there was the unmistakable, thunderous roar of earth tumbling down over the grave. 

* * *

The moonlight was beaming unhindered down upon Cthulhu that night causing the sea to sparkle as though it were forged of jewels, the fresh wood of the newly built buildings to glow palely, and the Luna's silver hair to shimmer beneath it's light. She kneeled upon the ground with her head bowed low, and listlessly picked the rue that grew in abundance on the edge of the forest not far from their house. She did nothing to stop the steady stream of green tears that rolled down her cheeks, and ignored the questions from the villages that asked her where the mayor had gone. 

_I can't believe that only three nights ago I thought of leaving him…I wondered whether or not I could do it, if it would be safer for Wilhelmina in the long run. Now I know, I can't bear that he's gone…I can't do this much longer, I need him…oh D… _her morose thoughts rambled on without stop.

When she heard the soft patter of metal hooves upon cobblestone her head snapped up, and her mouth fell open, there just within her line of sight was a familiar black figure mounted upon a cybernetic horse that was galloping full speed toward her house. All she needed to see was the horse, and the immense hat perched on his head before Luna's heart leap in her breast and she abandoned her herbs and rushed toward him. "D! D, damn it don't do this again, don't!" she cried when the horse at last slowed at her side and desperately she grasped his hand. Silently D dismounted, and reached out to slide his hands into the Nymph's hair, and pulled her into a heated kiss. But it was an invasive kiss, one in which he'd merely clamped his hungry lips upon hers and assaulted her with his tongue. Taken aback Luna pulled away; D had never kissed her that insistently, not even at his most amorous. And she'd felt the cruel points of his fangs; normally it took him a few minutes before his vampiric visage would surface. In the thin light that poured from the windows of the house she could see that the eyes that grinned lecherously at here were not black, but a brilliant vivid blue, eyes that sparkled with maliciousness and startling genius, but other than those eyes and the lines of age across his face the visage that peered at her was that of D's…the same narrow face, thin, cruel lips and smooth brow, the same long black hair that fell to his shoulders, albeit a bit straighter and more elegant. Massive fangs were visible just past his lips. It was a face she'd seen before, in decrepit paintings inNobel ruins, in quick flashes she'd seen of D's past before he'd closed that door.

'You!" she gasped, clutching the little dagger the used for cutting herbs tightly in her hands. 

Vlad Dracula petted the snout of D's mount, and then laughed lowly at the Nymph. "Come now, none of this you business Mrs. Dracula -Lunerahnefer Murray, I am your father in law. Please call me Vlad Tepes, or even Dracula. 

Pathetically she held her cutting knife out before her, "What do you want! Where is D!" she cried in wild desperation.

Dracula burst with laughter, 'Well isn't that obvious? I am riding his horse and wearing his ridiculous hat…need you more proof?" he pulled D broken sword from it's scabbard and tossed it down to the Nymphs feet, "it seems that love does not conquer all. Poor D…he was always so useless at family gatherings he'll even use death to get out of introducing his wife to his own father."

Luna trembled with horror, and then broke her fear to turn and run wildly into the house. Slowly Dracula followed her, Nymphs were not built for speed or true combat, they were created for nothing more that seduction and caring for the earth, he could have caught her if he wanted to, he could have torn her limb for limb but he made no haste. Let her run. 

Luna pressed herself against the door, as though somehow able to hold back the terrible monster at the threshold and sobbed openly, tears pouring freely down her face, "D! Oh Goddess D…" she'd seen the broken sword…what else could it mean? Who was more capable of destroying D than the man that created him? Already her heart was rent with despair. It took only a single pound for the door to go flying into a mass of splinters around Luna's shoulder, and wildly she turned and slashed with her small knife, managing to catch Dracula's face with the poor blade. A small line of blood run down across his cheeks and he smiled, "Well I see now that you have the same regard as family as my son did.", the Vampire King forced himself inside of the house and looked curiously about that the home that D and her had made together. 

"What do you want from me!" she cried out, her face was strangely composed, and steely, and her voice was now high and operatic. 

Dracula stilled, held fast by the sudden wave of desire that gripped the whole of his body and lightly clouded his senses. It was desire akin to only a glance from Mina's gorgeous eyes could fill him with. He should have known the Nymph would try this, it allowed her enough time to bolt toward the weapons chest beside the door and to retrieve a short board sword and a strange unmarked jar, she fell into a battle stance, one that D had doubtlessly taught her. "Leave! Leave me alone NOW and NEVER come back!" she cried out, her song now wild, undulating almost like a banshee cry that had been given harmony. 

The force of her song was so powerful that the walls shivered and glass shattered. Dracula's face went rigid, and slowly he took a step backward, compelled to obey that strange, seductive voice. But his will was ultimately stronger, and he only faced the Nymph with unyielding resolve. "Never you silly girl. Do not fight me." 

The unseen aura that seemed to radiate Dracula's elegant frame was suddenly crushing with it's power, it's darkness…it was identical to the same awesome power she'd seen D manipulate with his own aura, crushing his enemies with fear. As a result her hands trembled and the broadsword and the mysterious jar she held clattered to the ground. 

As the jar shattered revealing the tiny white powdered herb inside and a rank odor assaulted the room and Dracula gagged and reeled backward with the vile scent of it, "G…Garlic! Ha…is that all these years fucking a Hunter has taught you!" he mocked but would not move any closer, indeed he seemed rooted to the spot. Luna blinked as the terror swept past her, and in the heat of freedom she bent down to gathered the powder and threw it right into the Sacred Ancestors face. He screamed then, clawing at his eyes. Fueled again Luna retrieved her fallen sword and shutting her eyes she hurled herself forward and slammed the sword into the vampires chest. She opened her eyes only when she felt the blood flowing past her hands, and expected that she would see Dracula falling limply to the ground but he remained standing, and he smiled. It was a horrific sight, the garlic has bored holes into his flesh and he'd begun to cry bloody tears at the rank scent of it but the worst was the sight of his immense fangs. It seemed millennia ago that the sight of fangs such as those had been a tender sight to Luna. "You missed the heart sweetie, not that it matters much." His fist flashed across her face, hard enough to send the Nymph flying across the room and into a wall. 

Dracula pulled the sword easily from his chest, only a hint of pain crossing his features before he turned it in his hand and bore down on Luna. Now she only cowered fearfully against the wall, all her fearlessness had failed now and only desperation shone in her green eyes. 

"Please don't hurt me!" she breathed like a frightened child, "I am carrying his child! Isn't that what you wanted? A new race of perfection? She's going to be gorgeous, perfect…the child of Nymph and dhampir, you have to let her live!" 

No emotion was betrayed in Dracula's blood red eyes, he hefted his sword in his hands.

As a list ditch effort Luna raised her eyes to Dracula's glowing ones and did not look away no matter how his terrible aura screamed for her to submit. Her singing voice rose again, almost as sure and confident as before. "Spare us! Leave and never dare to come back. GO AW…" 

For a wild moment the look upon Dracula's face was confused, and lust shimmered in eyes, right along with hatred, and thirst for vengeance. He slipped his hand inside of his coat, there was a fiery flash and the in next instant Luna had fallen to the floor, a horrible and gagged cry was all that moved past her lips, before that to died away into mute silence. One of D's shattered wooden needles had pierced her throat, clear through the larynx and a wild spray of blood escaped the wound, spilled past the Nymph's lips. She clawed uselessly at the needle, but the fear had paralyzed her fingers, the whole of her body.

Dracula grinned down at the now helpless Nymph. "A shame to destroy a creature as beautiful as you, but the sins of the son must be repaid.".

He grabbed the Nymph up by her now blood red hair.


	13. Interlude Part Four: The Final Illusion

**Illusions **

_Note: Tying up the story line dealing with Mina and D's past. Didn't really hit me until this chapter just how Lost inspired these flashbacks are. Might as well say, "D walked real slow and heard a rushing sound…insert flashback here." Hehe…well that's funny if you watch Lost. As you can see I also watch Bram Stokers Dracula way way to much. Chapter 13 of 14._

* * *

**Interlude Part 4 : The Final Illusion**

"_It's marching though my door now, the stony cold of lonesome. A bell tolls for my heart and now my lonesome song begins." -Innocente, Delerium_

It took D's left hand a good ten minutes to simply flip his hosts corpse over onto it's back, "Damn it! FUCK!" the creature cried out in distress, it had only an hour or so to revive D's lifeless corpse before his vital organs shut down beyond recovery and his body would start to decay, but the symbiote required three elements for this feat…and all that was present in this wooden prison, air, was extremely limited.

Lefty clinched into a steely fist and pounded upward into the heavy, thick oak. A pained cry drifted from the fist that made no great impact upon the cloth and the wood. The fist slammed upward again and again and the tiny voice that escaped from it grew especially agonized, and then shrieked as blood began to run past it's fingers and down the wrist. A horrific snap and crunch was heard as the fist pounded again and again into harsh bulk of the wood, but the snap was not of the timber. Perhaps D might have pounded through the casket in a single blow or two, but D was dead. The countenanced carbuncle had only it's own strength to rely on, and the hand that it possessed. By the time the wood had splintered enough for the rich earth to pour though the opening the symbiote was trembling, and sobbing with pain, each one of D's fingers had been broken into formless shapes.

With slow and agonized movements Lefty fell down onto the column of dirt and weakly scooped up a handful and devoured it. More and more dirt slid down to replace the huge mouthfuls that the countenanced carbuncle consumed, after a minute or two passed the fingers began to reform in shape once again, and the bloodied hand rose.

"Alright…here goes nothing, don't have much air to begin with but I'll have to make do." Saying that the symbiote opened it's mouth wide and first bit down onto the stake of wood that protruded from D's chest…perhaps 45 minutes had passed since he'd last breathed, this was going to be cutting it close. With a grunt of effort it pulled the stake of wood from his heart and tossed it carelessly away. The hand then rose again, the tiny mouth opened wider and then wind began to howl in the wooden prison, or at least what little air that could be found rushed into the creatures mouth, as well as a good deal more dirt. Twice more the carbuncle devoured the small amount of oxygen, then pale flames began to form in it's mouth and spill past it's lips. Using two of the three elements it had created heat within it's own form, and used the energy of that heat to spark forth life from D's still heart. With a sizzling hiss the wound in D's chest began to close and at last left no trace of its presence. The symbiote felt D's heart give a feeble thump, and then a second stronger one but the dhampir's eyes did not move from their cold and fixated position, nor did he draw in breath.

"Come on D, snap out of it!" the hand cried and slapped his unconscious host in the face, "Come on! Stop dreaming! Wake up! WAKE…"

* * *

_A soft groan of frustration escaped D as he rose from Luna's lips, and pushed his long hair over his shoulder, bringing the Nymphs face out from the dark veil it had cast over her face as he'd shifted into arms, kissed her rosy mouth hungrily. Her small hands clutched for purchase on his broad back, and her legs tangled about his waist so that her body was utterly flushed against D's, her breath came in short pants as she matched the passionate rhythm of his hips. D kneaded her breast, and ever so slowly dragged his kiss down to the corners of her mouth, her cheek, and then her neck. Slowly, tenderly he opened his mouth and sank his fangs down into her soft white flesh, his crimson eyes flew wide and he moaned lecherously as the succulent blood touched his tongue. No other blood on this Earth could have tasted as heated and vibrant as Luna's, and no other creature would have writhed quite so seductively beneath his dark kiss the way she did. It was this reason that he found the call of all other blood so easy to resist…why drink water when he had the finest wine? The very taste of it caused D's body to burn, his very cells to sing with a drugging rapture and his muscles to clench with orgasm. Roughly he groaned against her bleeding neck, a single cry amidst the rapturous rush that matched Luna's own wild cry. Luna smoothed her hand across his cheek, and pressed him tighter to the wound and allowed him to drink even deeper still._

_When at last fulfilled, D silently moved from her neck and lay down upon her breast; calm presided strongly over him as he heard the drum of her heart. With a single hand Luna again caressed his face, smoothed back his hair although it only feel stubbornly back around his shoulders. Her other hand was bound to D's left one. In the Frontier it was customary for newly weds to have their hands bound to each other's by thin, multicolored ribbons. Red for passion, pink for love, blue for calm, green for wealth, white for fidelity and silver of eternal love. Traditionally the couple did not remove the binds until after they'd lain together in the marriage bed, but for D and Luna the marriage had consisted of a simple ceremony beneath the trees conducted by a traveling priest, and their marriage bed was the soft prairie grass and the halo of the moonlight, but all of this seemed quite fitting to D. _

_He felt no particular urge to remove the ribbons, nor to lift his head from the drum of her heart, no urge to move at all. Was it possible for him to simply lay here for an eternity, consumed by such rare and pure happiness, overwhelmed by his simple dreams? _

_He squeezed the hand that bound them, "I love you Luna."_

"_Then why aren't you here?" a horrible, gagged voice issued from his new wife's throat._

_D snapped up to face her. That had not been what she'd said, she'd said that she loved him to, and they'd removed the ribbons, slept under the moonlight for the first time as husband and wife…_

_Terror swamped his face as gazed down at Luna, she was drenched in blood from the neck down, her white hair was now crimson and she was making a horrific choking sound. One of his own wooden needles was protruding from his throat, and rather than her simple green wedding gown he'd mostly removed, she was draped in a white cloth, a shroud. "Hurry D, please…wake up…" she strangled._

_D saw that ribbons that bound them were now drenched in blood._

"_Wake…_

* * *

"UP!" cried the familiar wizened face at the top its voice.

D stirred into consciousness with a jolt, his hand exploring his wooden prison in vain. "Luna! Luna!" he cried out, the images were still vivid upon his mind. "Where I am I! What's happened!" all trace of the calm and collected dhampir where gone from his voice, all that could be heard now was his desperation.

"Well he killed you, threw you down into this casket and left! I had to bail your ass out yet again. Damn it D, I told you, I fuckin' told you but you don't listen, I am just your stupid yapping hand!"

D said nothing as he focused hard at the heavy oak wood, and he clinched his fists hardly noticing his left was still broken. Yelling with effort he slammed his fists upward, arcing all his weight into the lid, his immense strength fracturing the wood easily, the hinges snapped. With another harsh blow, the lid splintered completely and earth came rushing downward, but easily enough D gained his ground and began to claw his way upward, and emerged from his grave. The earth seemed to fall right from his form as though it was loath to mar his beauty, but there was no exquisiteness in D's face as he rose to his feet, and his eyes swept around the graveyard. There was only utmost despondency. He looked over up at the sky, saw that he'd lost an hour already for the sunlight had faded, then over to the post where he'd tied his horse, "Shit!" he cursed lowly when he saw that his horse was gone.

It had taken him two days on horseback to reach this forsaken spot…how long would it take him to return to Cthulhu on foot? D didn't not even finish the thought before he began to run. Had any human eyes been around to see they would have seen little more than a dark blur in the daylight.

* * *

_Lily Odette, his bride to be, was veiled at the grand masquerade that heralded his wedding but D knew well enough that the face beneath her black veil was as gorgeous as the brilliant emerald green eyes that stared hungrily at him through the veil that covered her from nose down. Only last night he'd caught her as she road into the Castle of Dracula, and took her hand as she dismounted her horse. Their eyes locked and within moments he had her in his chambers, pushed back her veil and consummated their marriage well before the ceremony._

_D wore an extravagate green and black costume and cape with a mask of peacock feathers held to his face as he started at Lily Oddette's seductive eyes, her elegant raven curls and the shapely breasts that had fit so well in his large hands. He thought of nothing but these features as the masquerade unwound about him, blocking out the constant whispers surrounding him about whether he truly was the son of Dracula, the frail screams of human sacrifices that meet their death in the ballroom and the haunting cacophony of violins and dark vocals that filled the air. _

"_D…" a sudden voice rose from behind him, and a delicate and trembling hand rested on his shoulder, only that voice could have torn him from his brides eyes. He whirled about and felt his heart clinch as he faced his mother. The brilliant white gown that fell in a long train to the floor, the diamonds she was encrusted in and swan mask she held to her eyes could not hide the fact that she'd been wasting away these past few years into little more than a sickly frame of a woman. She could not mask the regret, the anguish and the pain that had marked and aged her face. But D would not let his sympathy get the better of him…after all she had chosen this life, for both herself and him._

"_What do you want?" he sighed._

"_Can you forgive me D?" she began in her husky, and broken voice, "I am so sorry…I know the errors of my ways. I never should have given in. I was so lonely D, but I never…"_

"_No." he hissed, "I'll never forgive you. Leave me." _

"_D, please!" she whimpered but he'd turned away, unable to bear the sight of his mother. His weak and sniveling mother that had condemned him to this powerlessness, this tyranny and this unending lust. "She did this to me…" he muttered as he spied a pale, terrified human girl wondering aimlessly thought the crowd. In a flash he reached out and grasped her wrist. A fevered scream rose from her lips as he pulled her flush with his body but as soon as her eyes meet his face all her resistance died away and she closed her eyes and tilted her head back. "You have my mother to thank for you death." He mused aloud, and bit hard down into the girl's throat. After a moment Lily Oddette joined him and bit down the girls throat as well, each vampire groaning in ecstasy as the girl whimpered, then grew cold in their embrace. D dropped her lifeless body carelessly to the ground, he pulled Lily to his lips and kissed her obscenely, the blood they'd dined shared between them as well as impassioned gasps of fulfillment. _

_Lily pulled from him, baring her delicate fangs and she caressed his cheek, the tendrils of his hair that had fallen from his ponytail. "Son of Dracula, I think we can be very happy together, for an eternity." She purred pressing her body into his._

"_Anything you say…dear." He answered almost choking on the words. How hollow that dream sounded. How could he ever hope to achieve a moment's peace with this laughable, lustful illusion tied to him? He took her hand, and led her out of the ballroom. He stole her away to an out of the way corridor on one of the upper most stories of Castle Dracula, and he pressed his soon to be bride possessively against the wall and they kissed fervently, he plunged a hand down her bodice, and slid the other up her skirt. Anything to forget this meaningless existence he was now captive of. He could not deny the softness of his vampire brides' lips was enchanting, but was lust really worth foregoing his freedom? He had no choice he supposed, he had to take this useless creature as his, his mother had sacrificed any freedom he had in the matter._

_The distant sound of running feet than meet his ears, followed by panting human breaths. A moment later he heard the thunderous voice of his father, "MINA! MINA STOP IT! COME BACK HERE!" Again D pulled from Lily's embrace._

_The sound of pounding footsteps rose in a crescendo toward D and a moment later he saw Mina's ghost white form rushing through the darkness, hastening past D without so much as acknowledging him but he could see the wild madness raging through her eyes, and there was the overwhelming scent of flesh blood about her. A moment later Dracula came, moving like a blur of shadow and he seized her arm, and shook her violently. "Stop this my love! Go and lay down, I'll fetch a healer, your not well!" _

_Mina shrieked like a banshee as the dark form of Dracula embraced her and then she thrust a hand into the bodice of her gown and pulled free a long, golden chain. Hung there was a heavy sapphire pendant and a golden piece was mounted to it's center in the strangest shape. Two lines perpendicularly crossed just above the middle. D had recalled seeing this jewel within his mothers belongs all her life, although she never wore it, and he recalled that the sight of that symbol filled with him such horror and revolution, that it made his head ache and his muscles freeze. His studies amongst the Nobility had taught him that it was actually an ancient Christian symbol; one that inexpiably had an adverse affect on vampires so the Nobles had thus erased it from the minds of humans._

_Indeed Dracula recoiled, hissing as the symbol meet his eyes and Lily drew back, gasping with horror, but D merely gazed at it intrigued and disgusted. "Back!" Mina's voice wavered, "Don't you dare touch me you creature of Hell!" She turned then and disappeared up a narrow and winding staircase. _

"_Such silly humans…" Lily purred and moved toward D's lips but he pushed her roughly away from him and abandoned her without a second thought, rushing after his mother. D had a horrible suspicion of where she was headed as he tore after her, seeing the white train of her gown fluttering as she ascended the winding staircase, This was a staircase that spiraled up one of the tallest towers of Castle Dracula, the upper most landing was a bell tower and beyond that balcony. Often D had come there to gaze down at the sprawl of trees and fields and to reflect in his usual silence, a place away from his overbearing father and his weeping mother, from his science and his bloodlust. Perhaps it was madness that gave Mina such speed as she pounded up the stone stairs, or perhaps the glittering symbol she still held in her hands held utter say over their vampire nature, because Dracula was running only about as fast as mortal. Indeed D felt a curious weakness in his legs, but he forced it back, stared only at his mother's desperate face and rushed to catch her. By the time he was near enough to grasp her Mina had broken through the thresh hold and with an extra burst of speed she rushed across where the immense bell hung and then paused as she meet the stone edge of the balcony. This particular balcony was the most scenic of the whole castle, overlooking the lush forest life below, the purple rim of dagger like mountains that where just visible to vampire and dhampir eyes and below a silver thread of the river Arges that encircled the castle. Tonight a full moon was hung high in the sky and encircled with stars. They shimmered almost as bright as Mina's white gown as it fluttered through the air. She hoisted herself on the balconies edge and peered breathlessly down at the lethal drop, that strange jewel was still dangling from her hands.  
_

"_Mother, NO!" D cried._

_Mina stiffened at the sound of his voice and turned slowly around to face him, a moment later Dracula had appeared in the doorway, but stood paralyzed as his eyes regarded the sacred symbol he'd once so honored, and now so passionately rejected. "No…you won't take her Yahweh…never…" D heard the former warlord of God mutter under his breath._

_In the moonlight D could see that a thick stream of blood was winding his way down his mothers wrists and hands, dripping across the glittering jewel and down onto the stone. There were vertical cuts along her forearms were she'd previously attempted to take her life, as well as livid bruises about her forehead perhaps where she'd been pounding it to try to end her life as well. _

_Dracula grabbed D roughly by the shoulders and cried, "YOU! What did you say to her to make her like this! I know it was you, ANSWER ME! It's ALWAYS you, you are all that she loves anymore, all she thinks of, dreams of…CURSE YOU!" _

_D didn't even acknowledge his father; rather he stepped slowly out onto the balcony and offered his hand to Mina, saying nothing as he approached. Dracula offered her whispered words of love and encouragement but D merely locked onto her madness glazed eyes and fought the find the woman that lay frightened and confused beneath them. _

'_Take my hand." D whispered softly. Dracula did not fail to notice how her eyes shifted from that of madness to utter devotion as she gazed upon D's face, and listened to his steely voice, she was his slave. Indeed he'd made his son perfect…far to perfect. _

_Mina did not move from the balcony but D felt safe enough with her hand clasped in his, and slowly, not really even thinking about it he brought her bloodied hand to her lips and kissed it, "I love you, Mother." _

_Even that miniscule taste of her blood, succulent and vibrant, was enough to bring the blood light blazing to D's eyes, causing them to glimmer brighter than rubies in the sunlight. At the sight of them the demented Mina screamed with terror, and turned to flee but there was nowhere to flee but the very air. Still screaming she fell with a shimmer of white. Her hand was still clasped in D's and he was pulled insistently forward. For a moment D clutched tightly to her hand, tight enough to feel the bones snapping beneath his grip but the momentum of her falling form was to great even for the shocked dhampir and he to was pulled over the edge of the tower, Mina's bloody hands slipping from his. The wild thread of the river was growing into a vast expanse of lethal water, and was rushing up to greet them. Still he could hear his mother's terrified wails, and distant and tortured anguished ones of his father._

_The feral water felt like bricks as D struck the surface and slipped below like a stone._

_It was well known fact that for some reason vampires and dhampirs had no buoyancy in water, that their limbs would become near paralyzed and their bodies would shut down. If they surfaced from the water they where left in a death like state. With the coming of night or an infusion of blood they would return to life, but such weakness left them utterly vulnerable…and there where plenty of humans slaves here in Castle Dracula that would have loved to have taken Dracula's dhampir son. With horror filled eyes D watched the wavering moonlight fader from his sight, and he sank immobile in the blackness. A cloud of bubbles escaped his lips, and a second later his mouth opened, his face was twisted with wild pain as the water rushed into his lungs. He had not managed to take a proper breath before plunging. Feebly he tried kicking his legs, but it was nowhere near enough to move him._

"_Mother…" he chocked against the onslaught of water._

"_HEY! HEY D, OVER HERE!" a sudden, strangely hoarse voice that sounded much like his own shouted through the thunderous roar of the water. He felt a strange, tingling sensation in his left hand, and curiously he raised that hand and gave a cry, taking in more water. A strange tumor appeared to have suddenly risen on the palm of his hand, but there in the center of it was a gnarled, ancient human face complete with a hooked nose, jagged lips, teeth and even eyes! The tiny face grinned at him, "Nice to finally see you Dracula Murray."_

"_What…"D gasped although he never actually said the words._

"_I am the backup plan, you see. Dracs wanted his son to be perfectly immortal, and few creatures understand the secrets of life eternal than my kind. I can give life to anything. But first I'd rather not have you die on me, now start kicking!"_

_D was certain that this strange image must have been some sort of hallucination; perhaps the madness in his mother blood was rubbing off on him. But hadn't Dracula once mentioned something about his left hand…hadn't he always imagined as a child he had a friend residing in his own palm? In desperation he listened and started to writhe weakly against the water._

"_Come on now, keep at it." encouraged the talking tumor, and then the hand did something truly strange and rose by it's own accord. The tiny mouth opened and water rushed inside of the hand, suddenly D was filled with a sudden upsurge of power and energy. The carbuncle must have somehow used the very water to create it; the sudden strength caused D to shake aside his weakness and to pull himself upward from the water. He was soon accomplishing something none of Nobel blood had ever before done, and was swimming toward the surface, at last breaking and pulling in a huge gasp of air. D was utterly astonished, now he was being pulled with the river, floating with the current…  
_

" _There ya go now! Mind over matter. You see it mostly in the heads of vampires that they can't swim…water does weaken them a lot, but more often than not they just submit to it." The hoarse little voice kept on._

_Astonishment clear on his features D lifted his left hand from the water; the tiny face was still there. It smiled again at him, "Call me anything you wish."_

"_Thank You…Left Hand." D breathed in rare gratitude but his astonishments was short lived when he heard a frail cry to the right of him, and a shimmer of a gown. He caught sight of his mother being pulled along with the strong current; saw her feeble attempt to move…she'd survived the plunge! How could that have been! _

_Without another thought D kicked swiftly over to were she'd been, moving with the strength and speed that no dhampir could ever hope to have in the water, and using the swift pull of the water to his advantage. He gathered Mina's slight form into his arms, and with a series of powerful kicks broke the current and made for the shore. Mina's bloodied hands grasped weakly at his arms as he struggled forward. _

"_Can you swim Mother? I am not very good…" he asked in desperation, feeling the weight of her pulling him down, but she did not answer. He'd pressed her head to her chest with his left hand, and a chill skated down his spine as that strange voice spoke again, "I had to put her to sleep there…she's in a lot of pain. She'll only just slow you down." _

_It seemed like hours passed before D at last pulled himself up onto the solid ground and set his mother down on the muddy grass. He said nothing as he gazed down at her body but the despair marked his face. He could tell by the limp way she laid, and the strange angle her limbs were set at the fall must have broken near every bone in her body, blood was pouring not only from her wrists but her mouth, nose and ears. For no reason he placed his left hand upon her shoulder, she then began to stir awake but the plaintive, gasping screams that rushed past her lips were enough for D to wish that she were not. Perhaps all these years of being bitten by a creature of the darkness of occasionally sharing his blood had given her a lingering thread of immortality…enough to survive that lethal fall, but it was clear now by the agony in her pale face that thread was soon to snap. _

"_Mother…"_

"_D…" she whimpered. There was no madness in her eyes now, only paramount pain and regret. _

"_I am sorry Mother…" even D did not believe that painful lump in his throat that made it so hard for him to speak, that summoned a sob from his rigid voice. Had he ever before cried? Mina had once told him he'd never even cried as a child._

"_I didn't mean…I never…I didn't know what to do once I came here… I couldn't control…" a million excuses came to his mind but none of them could justify the way he'd tormented her these past few years. The way he'd destroyed the only person he'd ever loved. It must have been true what the humans screamed in their rebellion, slavery and death throes…perhaps the vampire race truly was damned. Fated to destroy all they touched and cared for. The first tears to have ever touched his cheeks began to slip down the side of D's face; they were as crimson as the blood that stained Mina's gown. _

_Mina's wavering eyes caught her sons, and she managed to speak softly, "Don't cry D, not for me."_

"_Mother…" he only sobbed all the harder and gently cradled her closer. The sobs had taken him captive now and were wrenched painfully from him. He was distantly aware of the fact that he hated the involuntary grip of this emotional attack, the way it stung his eyes and twisted his face, but more so than anything else he was aware of the dreadful thumping of his heart and the knowledge that this would be the last time he would ever look upon his mothers face. Soon he would have to commit her to the cold Earth, and abandon her to rot and crumble into dust. He wished desperately that he could silence those terrible cries that welled every so often from her lips, to stanch the flow of her blood that was carrying the life from her even swifter but there could be no hope for her now…not if she was resistant to the cursed blood. Only one thing would silence those cries._

"_I never wanted any of this D…I never wanted to fall in love with the night. I never wanted to raise its child." Her voice was barley understood even to D's keen ears. "But I did. I love you still. Will you promise me to fight the darkness wherever you see it? There are so many like me that cannot dream because of the shadows…will you give them a chance?"_

_D nodded, "I will slay every vampire in this world and the next for you." He took a faltering breath, "I need to tell you something. Do you recall when we were running that every birthday I used to give you white flowers?" _

_She nodded, tears now slipping down her cheeks._

"_I never stopped. Not even when I come here. You found them right…the flowers just outside your window, on your bed or your doorway? They where mine. I missed you Mother."_

_The slightest smile crossed her bloodied lips, "I thought they where from…"_

"_No." _

_With the hand that he had not crushed she weakly took his own hand, "Never fall…" her voice faded away in mid sentence along with the light in her eyes as Mina died in his arms. He could almost feel the exodus of her soul as it vanished from her body, and transcended to a place he could not ever hope to find. He was certain that she was invoking her stern words so many years ago to never to fall in love. _

"_I promise." He ground out brokenly to her lifeless husk, " I'll never fall in love, and I'll always be strong, for you. I remember what you told me, love is more terrible than hate, and it's all an illusion. I won't fall for it…" the rest of D's words were lost in the flood of tears that soon followed. He bent low over the body of his mother and for an hour or two wept his tears of blood that flowed like the river that had ultimately claimed her life, just as it had claimed the life of Dracula's first mortal wife so many eons ago. The final illusion of security and love he'd clung to all of these years was gone. Now there was nobody left for him in this world to cling to…no reason, no drive at all save for the promise he'd made her. _

_D did not ever think he would summon the courage to rise from that spot but at some point he did sit up, and he closed Mina's lifeless eyes to the stars that they blankly reflected, to all the world. He then tore the long train off her gown, and used this to gently shroud her cold body. As he covered her he noticed that she was still clutching the jeweled pendant in her hand, but now it was only the strange sapphire set in gold. It appeared the repulsive symbol had been knocked off in the fall. Lightly he pulled the chain from her hands and then slipped it around his neck. That was all that he had left of her now, this and fragile memories that already seem to be fading before his eyes._

_He gathered her in his arms and took her away from the riverside, shocked that his father had not yet found them. When he reached the forest he set her down and began to dig, in only moments he'd dug a grave deep enough for her to lie in and planting a kiss on her shrouded forehead he lay her down in her shallow grave and hid her from the world. As an afterthought he took two thick branches and using cloth from his own costume he tied them together into the shape that the Nobility could not bear. He did not even feel the pain in his hands as they burned when he plunged the symbol into the ground. His hands fell away from the marker and he only stared solemnly down at the pitiful mound of earth. All that remained of the woman he'd loved and then destroyed by his own curse. He began to speak words of an ancient prayer he'd heard often from the humans, words he hardly understood the meaning of but he spoke them nonetheless, unable to find any others. _

_I herby commit my beloved_

_Into the eternal rest of Thy kingdom,_

_Into the dreams of Thy gentle arms._

_Neither great nor small are we;_

_Off into the distance we go, only to be born again,_

_And thus we are called the far wanders._

_Though we wander the earth seeking Thee,_

_No answers are given, _

_Naught but shadows do we see in this troubled world._

_Yet we know not fear;_

_The words of silence are known to us,_

_And as we see the unseen,_

_We are Thee and Thou art us._

_This far wander I now commit to Thee. _

_Minutes passed as D stared emptily down at his mothers grave, then back up at the looming grey stoned castle. Lights were blazing in every window, and he could distantly hear the shouts and murmurs that filled the castle as rumor spread that the Queen and the dhampir Prince were dead. He could even hear the violent, broken sobs of his father. D's own tears had since run dry._

_"You killed her. " he whispered to the darkness. "You cursed her with darkness, with me. But she will have her vengeance. I can promise you that, father. I will hunt you and every other creature of the night down and destroy you."_

* * *

D's knees gave out from under him and he collapsed into a heap onto the twisted mass of soil and roots beneath him. He was panting so hard that his lungs were screaming with each convulsive gasp, he tasted blood in his mouth. His whole body throbbed with aches; he was exhausted and horribly thirsty. All of this was quite understandable; he'd been running twice as fast as his cyborg horse for almost 24 hours and Cthulhu was now only an hour or so away. Vampires were capable of incredible bursts of speed, but those distances where usually very short as the exhaustion strong and quickly. The fact that D had been running so long without faltering was almost unheard of.

"Is that…oh no!" the symbiote cried in horror.

"I know. I smell it to." D rasped in agony.

There was a thick and rank scent being carried along with the wind clearly coming in the direction of Cthulhu, it was the smell of blood and of ash. D could faintly hear the voice of the wind amidst his pain; hear the agonized and sorrowful song it was singing. It was all to clear that Dracula had reached the village and left his mark upon it.

"You know what you have to do D, now just do it! Here, let me help you…" there was a munching sound beneath D's palm that clinched down into the earth. A moment later strength flooded back into D's body and he pulled himself back up, taking in his surroundings. He was now in a small wood, there should be plenty for him to feed upon. D only needed to take a few steps before he stumbled upon the scent of deer flesh, and hungrily followed it to its source. The slender doe only had time to snap it's head up from were it was grazing before D descended upon in it like a shadow, seized it's sinewy neck and bit down into its flesh.

He had to force himself to swallow the poor creatures lifeblood, not only revolted by what he had to do, but also repulsed by the taste. It seemed so watery and thin compared to the vibrant blood of his lover, to that luscious fount he'd lived off of for three years during moments of utmost passion. How could he stomach anything else? His body was screaming only for her blood, while his heart ached all the deeper knowing it was all to likely that he might never know it again.

Still no matter how vacant it tasted the blood was blood, and it revitalized him enough to push aside the exhaustion enough to began to run again. He was considerably slower now, running only about as fast as a swift, and fit human man, and woods and hillsides hindered him but at last an hour later he crested the final hillside. Night had began to fall.

Not far below lay the sea and nestled sleepily on it's sandy shores lay Cthulhu, small and diminutive with only it's piers daring to cast any connection to the world outside of it. Now, however it lay wreathed in flames, and it appeared that a grotesque woodland had sprung up just outside of it. But the trees were tall, thick spears and their foliage were the writhing bodies of victims that hung upon their end. Very few of them were dead. Where once only the soft roar of the ocean could be heard was the hellish screams of humans and the feral roars of undead beasts.


	14. Chapter 14: Illusions

**Illusions**

_Note: Wooot! Here we are, last chapter, sorta. Sorry again for the delay. Anyway, this got lengthy so I split it in two, but don't worry…part two already up as the epilogue. Well, enjoy and know this is rated M for a reason._

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: Illusions**

"_It was just an illusion. There was no substance to it." D said matter- of- factly." – Vampire Hunter D: Mysterious Journey to the North Sea: Part One. 82_

The first thing that D noticed as he stumbled wearily down into Cthulhu was not the stink of ash and blood but of wolf flesh. Werewolves to be exact. Once D had staggered past the horrific forest of impaled bodies, the disbelief plain of his face, the first werewolf come snarling out of the shadows and leaping at him in a blur of grey. D delivered a swift chop with his bare hand to the creature's neck, severing the skull from the neck and without a sound the creature sank to the blood stained ground. The Crimson Eye was glaring on its neck. It was said the Dracula could summon his armies from the very shadows, that he could turn any creature of the night into his slave, but more often than not it was the werewolves that answered his silent call. It was the werewolves that could raze a whole city to the ground in only a matter of minutes. D had seen it hundreds of times before…it should have been second nature to D's gelid eyes.

Still he turned his gaze with morbid curiosity up to the tall stake that was nearest to him, up to the young man that hung shrieking and writhing atop of it. How often had he seen these grim markers encircling Castle Dracula, planted like grotesque trees? His father adored stringing these up like baubles at Christmas time. Rarely did the victim die from the actual impalement. Dracula was a master at his art, usually impaling his victims with a blunt spear, pushing aside their organs and leaving them alive and in utmost torture with no hope and then the carrion birds would come and fest on their flesh sometimes while they still lived. D could already faintly hear the raucous calling of crows and vultures in flight, drawn to the stench of rotting flesh. It seemed as if more than half the population of Cthulhu was now impaled before him. D didn't notice that a single, red tinged tear had begun to meander down the side of his face.

But soon enough D pushed aside the shock, and with a low growl, his eyes blazing forth in fury he began to run again, past the grim forest. He spied a fallen broadsword upon the cobblestones and he snatched up, hefted it easily in his hands and plunged into the blazing heart of Cthulhu. He cut down werewolves so fast that they never even saw Death approaching. Every building, every cottage, boat, and every farm was burning in a strangely beautiful wreath of flames. No mercy had been granted. Children were laying maimed and dead in the streets, men cut down and or else impaled and the women were naked, their bodies evidently violated before death.

"Where ARE you!" D roared out amidst the chaos, his feet flying across the cobblestones and sword flashing as it took lives of the lupine. "Show yourself you fucking coward!" he screamed to the sky.

The few that had still managed to survive by skill or sheer luck could not help but to cringe into the shadows as they saw their mayor running like a berserker in the streets, killing as through it were what he had been honed to do. His eyes were gleaming ruby red; he was wearing heavy black armor, the type that only a Hunter would wear. To each desperate mind a single thought formed…could the rumors of the Mayor Underhill have been true?

D slowed to a walk only when he approached his own cottage, then he stood stock still. Only a skeletal frame that glowed eerily with embers remained of the house he'd fled to escape his calling, and silhouetted within the light of the burning village was a tall spear. The sword slipped from D's hands and frigid horror swept across his once impassive face.

"Luna" he murmured brokenly and dreading each step he took forward.

The shape atop of the spear was diminutive, far too small to be that of Luna and soon enough he saw then it was actually two smaller shapes. They were the stiff forms of their cats; the fuzzy bundle that had once been his cat Fluffy, the ginger coated one that had been Luna's cat, Yttik. His gaze followed the drip of blood that oozed down the stake, and down onto the ground. That was where Luna was pinned, face down. Her dress was badly torn, exposing her beauty to the night, gashes and wounds covered the whole of her but the most horrific wound was that of the spear that had punched through her midsection and trapped her against the earth. There was a vast pool of blood soaking the grass.

D sank to his knees in defeated helplessness down by her side and he whispered her name.

The Nymph's head jerked up. Even D gave a shocked cry at her sudden movement, then another at the sight of her once beautiful face distorted by blood, misery and black bruises. There was a dark crimson pool at her throat; through it was one of his wooden needles. She made a choked, watery rasp, but after a moment D understood that she was trying to speak. "D…it's you…" she reached out and grasped his hand with her trembling one.

"I am here." He answered simply but his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, fast enough to ache along with the rest of his body. He gripped her hand tightly.

There was another terrible gagging sound and vivid green tears tracked down the sides of Luna's cheeks. It took moment for him to understand her strangled words, "Wilhelmina…he killed her."

Only then did notice the importance of the stake that had pieced the Nymph's midsection. Grim terror seized D as he began to understand that the vivid blood that had stained the ground was not just of his pets, and his wife, but of his unborn child. Perhaps further along the immortal child might have survived such drastic blow to the mother's womb…but not so young, not when it's fragile heart had only began to beat weeks ago. It appeared that Dracula had meant to take out the whole of D's family on this single axis. It was as if a stake a hundred times sharper and crueler than any before had punched into D's center leaving only a gaping and bleeding hole in his chest. Yet, for the sake of Luna he kept his face stony calm and merely stroked her hair. "At least I still have you."

Whimpering Luna nodded.

D bent down and kissed her lips softly, the taste of her blood sending a thrumming chill through his nerves and a tiny surge of strength through his exhausted body, just enough to momentarily fight away the pain. He lifted his left hand to Luna's cheek; she blinked wearily and then sank back down to the ground unconscious. First D removed the wooden needle through her neck, and then gently as possible pulled up the stake that pinned her, sparing a forlorn glance at their lifeless pets before tossing the skewer away. He tried desperately not to look at the gaping wound in her abdomen as he felt for her threaded pulse, and listened to her uneven breathing.

"Well?" he questioned impatiently.

"These next few weeks are a going to be hard on her, but she'll live." The gravelly voice spoke with a relieved sigh.

"Thank God." D murmured and kissed her forehead.

"God had nothing to do with it," came a stony voice.

D's head snapped up, but he was not shocked to see the tall frame of his father standing several yards away, haloed by the hellfire. His normally perfect hair was wild about his face that was drenched in innocent blood. Rubies seemed to be dripping from his fangs. "I've merely forgotten that Nymphs are harder to kill than they look. Perhaps it is understandable. I practically created this world and all its fiends, when you're God you tend to forget a few minor things. No matter, I will dispose of her."

Slowly D released Luna and rose to his feet, ignoring the wobble in his legs as he did so. He met his father eye to blazing eye. "I will end you." He seethed. "You will suffer twice the deaths that you have taken tonight and all these millennia."

"Well then, come on at me!" Dracula cackled, becoming toward his son with bloodied hands. He glanced to where the Nymph lay, "At least I can see what all the fuss was about. I haven't tasted blood that succulent since Mina. Poor thing thought that she could command me by summoning my lust, but she only whetted my appetite. It's quite within your right to become my perfect enemy D….it hurt even me to hear the way she screamed out for you. Yet still it was quite satisfying to pound my memory into something that wanted only you. I grew quite tired of being overshadowed by your vacant beauty."

With a throaty cry D flew toward his father, armed with nothing more than his bare fists. Dracula's cape flew outward and whirled about his form. The cape appeared to swirl with its own life and whip D about the midsection knocking him backward. A vivid mist of blood spread from the Hunters belly, and awkwardly he pressed his hand to the wound. Any deeper and he would have been split right in half. Thunderous laughter pealed the air as Dracula watched his son writhe upon the ground. It was all too evident the dhampir was utterly exhausted to have missed an attack like that. He lacked even the power to cast his deadly aura about him. D looked utterly human and utterly vulnerable as he strained to reach for his fallen broadsword, pressing his hand to the wound all the while. Dracula kicked him harshly beneath the chin, sending him flying back to where the Nymph was laying. At last a groan of agony rose from D's form, and he coughed on the blood that welled from his mouth.

"Give it up now D. I've already won…" Dracula began to taunt again but D did not listen to him. Rather his gaze was drawn to the Nymph, still so faintly stunning beneath glow the hell fire, and the veil of blood that shrouded her. Her blood… swiftly D crawled to her side and he pressed his lips to her unresponsive ones. Tasting her life force he moaned with ecstasy, and leaned in closer, lapping the blood off her cheek and her throat. It wasn't the rich infusion that he now craved to function at all, but it was enough to fuel him.

"No, STOP!" Dracula raged in horror as he released what the dhampir had done but almost before the words where out his mouth Dracula staggered, groaning. D had leapt at him a dark blur, and he pulled a dagger from the depths of his coat. Dracula could not help but screaming as the blade sank into his heart, than was withdrawn and sank again, then again into his chest. It was blinding, almost exquisite agony.

"What's wrong?" D panted wildly, "Not going to scream for Mina as I drive my memory into you!" he shook the spray of the Sacred Ancestor's blood from his eyes but did not hesitate in licking it from his lips. He was hardly surprised to find its taste to be as potent and dark natured as the taste of his own blood. It fueled him further, driving the dagger ruthlessly into Dracula's heart. Dracula collapsed onto the ground, but only momentarily. It was long enough for D to bend to retrieve his fallen blade. He lashed wildly with his sword, arching toward Dracula's neck but the Sacred Ancestor's own glittering blade rose to parry the strike. Dracula surged back to his feet and hurled himself at D, piercing his chest ruthlessly. He saw a silvery flash, and just barely managed to twist away from it but couldn't entirely avoid the blade as it sank down into this left arm. He spun around shocked to see that D was there at his side, his blade upraised to hack down into his skull. He's merely pieced the after image of him. In a spilt seconds reaction Dracula defended the lethal blow.

Long minutes passed as the sword battle ensued, the scene no more than flashes of steel and the elegant dance of black shrouded figures to any that observed it.

But it wasn't surprising that it was D's movements that had begun to slacken. Even Dracula was shocked that the dhampir was standing at all, after having died and run more than a hundred miles to this village. But eventually D's knees gave out from under him, and he collapsed helplessly onto the smoldering embers of his home. Silently Dracula sneered and impaled him to the ground with his sword through the midsection. D's hand rose wearily to remove the blade but Dracula surged forth and he retrieved something glittering from the pocket of his coat. Whatever it was burned the vampires' hands and swiftly he wrapped it in his cape but left part of the golden object revealed. He pressed it to D's forehead and quickly the skin beneath began to smolder and D shrieked and writhed beneath Dracula, trying to pull the object from his skin.

Dracula grinned in triumph. "I found this on the shore of Arges, a day after I found where you buried her. I am certain you've guessed what it is by now."

Smoke was curling around Dracula's hand as he pressed the cross from Mina's pendant to his son's flesh. The vampire did not directly face the loathsome symbol, rather he stared at the vicious glow in his sons eyes. He pulled something else out of the pocket of his coat and pressed it to D's heart. It was a long barreled silver pistol, normally a weapon that one would have found in the armory of werewolf Hunters.

"Now, let us get one thing straight son." Dracula breathed, "Mayhap you are fated to kill me, but I have no intention of dying. Not while I can help it. I've worked too hard and too long to secure my immortality. I told you how to destroy me to even the score and to give the Nymph a fighting chance, but you failed her and the score is even. I am killing you now out of my own interest. Perhaps you recall suffering a little sting three years ago. One that would have killed you had the sniveling little Nymph not showed up? Surely you recall that you never saw the enemy that unleashed that Manticore upon you?" Dracula laughed coldly; there was only agony in D's face, not surprise. "Oh well why did I expect that would shock you? Yes, that was my little pet but knowing you, you likely knew that. Manticore venom, it's the only venom that means death to the immortal."

He cocked the hammer of the gun back, "The same venom is held within the bullets of this gun. Goodbye my son."

* * *

Luna tasted something strange in her mouth as she stirred into consciousness. It was something more than the metallic taste of her blood. It spoke of exquisite, wisdom defying darkness, of power that welled from the very core of the universe, from the very catalyst of creation. No…it was blood, but it was deeper, its coppery bite seemed somehow sweet. It was not her blood, but D's blood. She's tasted it on her lips when he'd kissed her both times, and now it was thrumming through her, pulling her back into wakefulness, lending her strength. Yes, she recalled its taste well.

_Luna's eyes fell as she lowered the slender bow. She heard the arrow thud uselessly to the ground and the rustle of dead leaves. At her side D sighed in exasperation. "You aim worse that a human child."_

_Angrily Luna whirled about to face him and thrust the bow back into his hands. "I am not a godamn Hunter! This is completely useless!" _

"_Perhaps so," D mused _

_She disguised her hurt by rolling her eyes, "I told you this was a waste of time. I am a Nymph, D. I can't even stomach the idea of eating meat, much less the thought of killing a poor rabbit just for target practice! That is beyond me!"_

_D pushed the bow angrily back into her hands, "The rabbit is just a sacrifice. Kill it."_

"_Sacrifice!" she raged eyes blazing. 'Why! Why kill for no reason! I CAN defend myself. Besides, the rabbit is gone now."_

"_There is a whole warren just beyond that tree. The Nymph song is hardly near enough to take down the evils I face daily." _

"_Exactly why I am NOT a Hunter." She growled fiercely._

_D face remained calm as ever. "Do you love me?"_

_The Nymph's eyes went wide and her heart fluttered in her breast at that sudden question. Only a week had passed since they'd first made love, his bite was still tender upon her neck. She fearlessly met his fathomless eyes. "I love you to death." _

_D nodded ever so slightly, 'Loving me could very well mean your death. I am a dhampir, I do not thrive in the ways of nature and life, not like you. I am born to kill; I've attracted death since the moment I was born. That being said, you must be able to try to defend yourself from those shadows. They will never leave me." _

_Luna needed no further convincing and she turned back to the tall oak before them, and waited for the stir of animal life, knocking another arrow. _

"_Like this." D offered and reached around her to help her stand correctly and positioned her fingers correctly on the string. He lingered for a moment at her side, and leaned down to kiss her lips briefly. "Now."_

_She shot again right as a rust colored rabbit ambled from the ferns. Thanks to D's aiming the arrow flew better, clipped a bit of the beast's fur but it scrambled quickly away. Three more tries yielded progressively worse efforts. Two hours had passed since D had sprung this idea on her. Impatience gripped the Nymph again and she cursed and threw the bow away once again. _

_D sighed again, "I' am going to try one more thing. Maybe it will give you an idea of how to defend yourself."_

_Luna watched mystified as D did nothing other than bite down on his bottom lip with a small pointed fang, dark blood welled from the wound and trickled down past his lips. His eyes glowed red. After a moment Luna understood._

"_Wait…you want me to…."_

"_Taste it." D replied softly, "A small amount will not hurt you; it will only temporally awaken the gene of darkness that is slumbering within you."_

"_The gene of darkness?" she repeated half horrified. "My kind don't have…"_

_D cut her off, "Any creature that is born of the Nobility, either by blood or experimentation has the gene of darkness, some stronger than others."_

_Luna could not help but to stare at the rivulet of blood that was running down his cheek, feeling like a woman possessed. The Nymph had never consumed the flesh and blood of a living creature, the very thought of it repulsed her to the core of her being until this moment. "If I taste it…."_

"_You'll see what it's like to fight. You'll understand." He said simply and stepped lightly over to her side. _

_Surprised by her own insistency Luna lurched forward and wrapped her arms around D's neck, kissed his mouth hard. She was momentarily sickened by the coppery, bitter taste of his life force, but soon she felt found something deeper. A spark that seemed to linger within the very blood itself, as thought it were alive, and teaming with consciousness. Her eyes flew open as a vision began to flash before her mind. They were terrible images, flashes of flames, of blood and entrails, bloodied swords, fanged beasts, nightmarish wraiths, fields of decaying corpses. Each image was of fright, and abject terror deeper than the creature of the nature had dared to dream. But through it all she found a power yet higher, an emotion, a thread of hope…it was anger. It was determination. Strength and power. The way ahead was clear, and she possessed all the power she needed._

_Luna pulled wordlessly from D, intoxicated with the thrum of power and she snatched up the bow, aiming it effortlessly, as thought the knowledge was within her very soul. She let the arrow fly and there was a pained squeal that rent the air. That hellish death cry of the white rabbit she'd pierced snapped the surge of power short, and Luna whimpered, sorrow hastily twisting her face._

_D laid a hand on her shoulder. "Well done."_

"_I…I…" she moaned and tears welling in her eyes she turned and pressed herself into D's muscular chest. He silently stroked her hair. "How can you do it? How can you take life for a living?"_

_She was shocked that he dared to answer. "Because __**he**__ took the life from me." _

Luna's eyes snapped open; they were no longer green but vivid red. She did not need visions of terror and death this time, not when she'd already physically seen them. The horrific pain in her abdomen, the paralyzing fear mattered not anymore. Now the darkness had awakened and all that mattered to her was the emptiness in her womb and the wild, defeated screams to her left. She'd never heard such a sound before but she knew right away by the way it tugged at her heart that it was D's cries. Her mind thought only to avenge the life that had been taken from her, to end those terrible cries of agony. Easily and painlessly she rose to her feet.

D was lying impaled on the ashes of their razed home and Dracula was bent low over him and pressing a strange symbol to his forehead that appeared to cause him such agony. In the other hand he pressed an immense gun to D's chest.

_You killed Wilhelmina, you've violated me and burned our village to the ground, but you're never going to take D you motherfucker! _She spied a wooden needle lying on the ground that was covered with blood and gore. It had been the same that had pierced her throat. She snatched it up and hefted it easily in her hand. Her path was clear. Dracula was left utterly vulnerable. It was all too easy, she could see the path clearly in her mind's eye, feel the eagerness in her hands. The needle seared the very air as she let it fly.

As expected it sank easily enough through Dracula's back and out of his chest, right through the heart. He gave a shocked roar of agony, the strange symbol slipping through his fingers. He whirled about to see the Nymph standing before her, her eyes glowing dimly. Her lips moved although no sound came out the words she formed were clear enough. "For Wilhelmina."

Dracula merely glared at the Nymph, hate filled eyes glittering and he raised his gun and simply fired it at Luna.

"NO!" D roared out even as a bloody rose appeared to bloom on her breast. Luna's eyes grew wide, and lost their strange glow before she thudded limply onto the ground.

There was a shout of mocking laughter from Dracula's throat that died a moment later as D shot upward in dark blur, yanked the sword from his body. Dracula stumbled backward and with a roar fired his gun again at D. There was a flash of silver as D's dagger rose and sliced the bullet in midair right down the center, the vivid blue poison flying outward. D surged forward, the hem of his cape spread wide and its edges stiff and razor sharp. It enveloped the Sacred Ancestor, who had only the time to widen his eyes before his body tumbled onto the ground, a jet of blood spraying from where his head had been. Wildly D knelt down onto the ground and searched the golden relic, wincing as his hands found it, but biting past the pain he clutched it hard and gripped the lifeless form of Dracula's head, slammed the relic point down into the vampires forehead. That ought to cease regeneration…for now at least.

"Luna" he breathed and crawled over to her side. The Nymph lay face down and utterly still, disbelievingly he took her into his arms and laid his hand across the vivid rose of blood on her breast. Right through her heart. The smell of the venom pulsating throughout her reeled D's scenes, summoning images of agony, of death that he'd never fully pushed away.

With slow bewilderment he pushed back her hair, for a second or two she looked tranquil before her eyes snapped open, fevered with torment and her mouth opened as well, a terrible sound escaped that sounded like a sob and chocked scream moving past her destroyed vocal cords. She wailed dreadfully, her body convulsed within D's arms, and terrible anguish twisted her once beautiful face, horror colored her eyes a distant black.

"You're going to be alright! You're going to be alright…" D heard himself breathe in utmost vain, wanting to mock his feeble words. It was such a terrible lie, already dark veins had spread like vines from the sight of the wound, and she violently seizing within his grasp, even as her muscles began to feel oddly lax. The memories were still all to vivid of when D had fallen victim to that insidious poison, the raw torture as it flared in his veins and crept toward his heart. But the poison was already reached Luna's….It had taken D thirty minutes to succumb from an indirect hit. How long did Luna have?

D's own heart felt oddly strained, as though some clawed beast were sinking into its flesh.

Desperately he looked to the Nymph's torn throat. It had not even begun to heal, nor would it with that foul poison coursing through her. Still he pressed left hand to the wound, ignoring the muffled and slightly broken voice within it, "Can't help this D….even alleviating the pain won't help her…"

"Luna dear, you have to sing. You have to do what you did for me." He commanded hopelessly.

Weakly she nodded, and her lips moved but a moment later only a wild shriek moved past them and her eyes somehow burned even brighter with pain. Tears were clinging to her pale lashes. Her lips moved again, slowly, and a mere whisper meet the dhampir's ears, "D, this is how we first meet."

"Don't…", he answered and faltered. There it was, that horrible lump of agony that had lodged into his throat, just as it had at the age of 19 but somehow it seemed bigger and more deeply rooted. It was coupled by that foreign, clawing feeling in his chest. He couldn't push past it fully and a sob escaped him when he spoke again, "…don't talk that way. "

Her skin was now burning hot and somehow icy cold beneath his finger tips, and feebly she shifted closer into his arms, laid her head against the solidity of his chest and gazed up at him with her wide eyes, whispering, "Just hold me…"

He felt the ache in his eyes, and the bloodstained tears began to claw at him as he pulled her tightly into the circle of his arms. "I'll always be here, I won't let you go." For a long moment there were no other words between then, only the gasps from the Nymph, her tiny spasms and the sting of tears in D's eyes. Her breathing was growing shallow while her cries were coming faster. At last D broke, the tears flowing unhindered from his eyes and he leaned down and kissed her clammy face, her trembling lips and tasted the vibrancy of her blood for the last time. "Don't leave me Luna. I cannot bear it, not again. I love you!"

Her eyes were curiously glazed now, as though she were not seeing the physical world, but one of dreams, one hidden from the eyes of the living. "D…" she whimpered, and her tremulous hand rose and clumsily caressed his cheek than fell leadenly back down to the ground. D knew it had not been him she'd been intending to caress; she'd seen it, that wretched archway between the living and the dead and pulled back the veil. The rest of her words never left her lips, her eyes remained wide horror filled glass marbles and terror transfixed her face forever. She did not move again.

For a moment or two D remained in transfixed disbelief, staring at the appalling corpse of his wife. He felt it soon enough, a strange snapping within his heart as though it had been released from mystical binds, but it was not a liberating sensation, it was deep and aching one. The Heart Bind had been snapped forever. His gorgeous face knitted with pain and he bowed his head no longer daring to hold back his sobs, he tears flowing like rivulets of blood down his face and down onto Luna. His lips ached as he kissed her cold flesh, as though trying to coax her back into life, and his fingers trembled as he smoothed back her hair. "Come back…come back…come back, Luna. I need you." He wasn't even aware as he said the words; he knew nothing but the rending pain in his heart. Each treacherous throb brought the pain closer and closer, bright and brighter. He couldn't draw in breath. His tears felt like shards of glass.

"D...D, stop it…" came a hoarse voice full of pain as well. "She's gone…"

"Come home to me…" D whimpered again. But it was no use. How could any life remain within those empty eyes, that dimly reflected the flames all around them, or within her pale skin as vacant as porcelain? Here it was…the shell of an illusion he'd dared to believe in. Countless times he'd encountered illusions left by the Nobility, strange transparent memories given artificial life that dissipated when he refused to acknowledge them. He'd long forgotten that illusions could also be living and breathing beings. They could be whole years spent in denial, spend in hiding and in simple, unattainable dreams. Dreams he'd dared to let himself believe in for the first time in his life. Mina had been right. Her voice drifted to D from the hazes of his memory.

"_But don't you dare let your heart become entangled with hers. You see love is as terrible as hate, because in the end, no matter what you believe it was all an illusion. A dream."_


	15. Epilogue: Tainted

**Epilogue: Tainted**

"_D remained silent as he gazed out at the sea, as if the movements of his heart that the hand described were something about which he knew nothing at all. Perhaps he'd never have a heart of his own for all eternity." – Vampire Hunter D, Mysterus Journey to the North Sea, Part Two, 191._

"_Please take this and run far away, far as you can see. I am tainted, and happiness and peace of mind were never meant for me." – And All That Could Have Been, Nine Inch Nails_

* * *

Cthulhu burned for two straight days. Only 25 of its 419 citizens remained alive. D could recall nothing beyond holding Luna's lifeless shell, when the last flames of his city had smoldered he'd awoke from an unconsciousness he never recalled falling into laying in the hasty camp the survivors had pitched within the town square. It was on the fourth day since the city had burned that D at last excused himself from the futile efforts within the camp to heal the wounded and returned to the shell of his house. Dracula, of course was no longer there, or within the piles of corpses within the city. Nothing but skeletal timber and ash remained of his fragile home with Luna but listlessly D shifted through the ashes of his illusionary years, looking for some simple relic to cling to. An hour passed before he stumbled upon two rather intact things, the first was a book. It had been the leather bound journal that Luna had used to record her potions and herbs. The second was a multicolored, handmade quilt, which was partially singed. It had been the same that Luna had carried with her in nomadic healing, huddled under as she almost froze to death, the same that had rested on their marriage bed. Softly he gathered it in his arms and draped it over the back of his cyborg horse. He then turned back and buried the badly decomposed bodies of thr cats, Fluffy and Yittk, planting two small crosses in their graves.

D's weary eyes lingered for a long time on the black pool of blood where his wife had been impaled, at the smaller stain where he'd killed his father, at least temporally, "I never asked you. Was what he said true?" D spoke seemingly to the wind, his voice rusty.

"About the vessels?" replied a hoarse one, "Yes pretty much, and didn't detect a faultier to his voice…that Drac's was always a strange one."

As D rose and turned away from the scene he stumbled and near collapsed, clinging tightly to the neck of his cyborg horse to keep upright. Quite unexpectedly pain twisted his face and the blood tears began to flow down his face yet again. By now he'd grown used to that shameful pain; he made no effort to hide it. "It comes far too late for Luna, but I will find them all. I will destroy him." He whispered to the ashes that stained his hands.

After a moment he lifted his head and urged the beast into a walk, suddenly feeling far too exhausted to climb up into its saddle. He was returning to the camp with the rest of the survivors, but he followed a different route that using the road that was still lined here and there with impaled bodies. He chose to walk along side of the sea, listening to the 

steady, heedless song of the waves and watching their constant motion. There was a very noticeable limp in his steps, as though he were walking like a man not fully conscious.

"So, are you up for a little nap D?" questioned the little voice dejectedly.

"I don't have a choice it seems. I won't last a day like this on the Frontier."

"How long do you think it will be?"

"I don't know," came D's cold reply as he stumbled upon his own feet and caught himself.

"Alright but if it's 50 years then I AM waking you up. I can't sleep the way you can you know. So when do you think you're going down?"

"Tonight, but I first I must free myself of Cthulhu."

Lefty scoffed, "Don't know how you plan to do that. Everyone knows you for what you are now, but they still insist that you lead them to Runh. They are frightened and alone with a vast Frontier to cross on foot, they aren't going to let go of the Vampire Hunter D so easily."

"I have a plan." He answered vaguely and kept on walking. In time he returned to the makeshift camp. Most of the mounds of bodies that had lined the grim camp were gone now, interred in vast mass graves and blessed with holy water as well as lined with the strange shapes D had fashioned. When he entered a thin woman with a partially burned face pressed a wooden cup into his hands and D sank down into the ground, exhaustion evident in his features. "Drink it up Mr…D. I recall Miss Lucy told me that this tea can help revitalize strength."

D pushed it aside without a glance.

"Mr. Mayor please, you've worn yerself ragged yeh have. All you ever do is weep, sleep and bury our dead. Yeh never eat, and yeh never seem to recover either. I thought that dhampirs were supposed to heal instantly. We'll be leaving here tomorrow morning, once we bury all our dead but with our leader in this state we won't make it ten minutes toward Runh."

"You 25 did not survive the wraith of the King of Vampires because of luck. The Frontier should be child's play to you." He responded without looking at her.

The woman only sighed, drinking in his gorgeous form. Somehow the very sight of him seemed to alleviate her pain even if he seemed so shattered, and so hopeless. She 

lowered her voice gently "We are going to bury her tonight, in a separate grave away from all of the others. Are you sure that you don't want to come?"

Briefly D nodded, "I'll say by goodbyes before. I've had to bury a lot of people…perhaps thousands over all these years. I've had to put my own mother into the ground, but I cannot bear to be the one who puts Luna into the ground."

"Luna…" the woman breathed sadly, "that was Miss Lucy's true name?"

D nodded, " Lunerahnefer Murray….at least when I married her…I didn't even think to ask her name before…" there was a hitch to his voice and the woman felt sorrow surge in her own heart.

D lay down onto the ground and turned from her, pulling his cape over his form, "I have to rest." He closed his weary eyes, cursing the fresh tears that gathered there. "This shouldn't hurt so much…" he whispered to nothing.

"Well, you have just lost …Luna…." The symboit spoke hesitantly, "Emotions are normal you know D, but your right you're far more vulnerable than you should be. Haven't even healed properly yet, and even I am not able to help you. You're breaking down, you have to give it up."

"Tonight." He replied resignedly then drifted into darkness.

D awoke three hours later, somehow far more weary and aching from head to toe as seemed standard these past few days. The camp was milling with activity and the survivors gathered the last provisions to head out alone into the Frontier and hope the nearest village might house them or else they buried the last of their dead. Without giving his actions much thought D reached inside of the pocket of his coat and found the leather bound book that had once belonged to Luna. Lightly he opened it and ran a hand across the thin and spidery script that covered the parchment, taking solidity in the fact that while their happiness had been an illusion she had not. She'd once breathed, one lived. He flipped absently through, glancing at her complicated formulas and herbal notes until he reached the last page she'd recorded. At that moment an icy claw seized D's numb heart in its grasp, the last words she'd recorded were not of healing:

_She's beaten down, hopeless and submissive, a creature to be pitied, a creature afraid of everything she sees in the world...but most especially of her father._

…_I find myself growing more afraid of D as he slips deeper and deeper into the frozen silence he bore when we first meet. _

…_I cannot deny that I fear him any longer. Vampire Hunter D maybe dead to the world but these past years I know that he'd gone nowhere._

_I was blinded by love, now I am blinded with fear…._

The first image to reach D's dumbfounded mind was that of Luna's dead eyes, staring glassily up at the stars her face twisted forever with horror and agony.

Softly he shut the book and laid it down onto the ground, rose up and made his way across the camp. The mound of bodies was now almost gone, only about ten or so of the dead remained, the truest heroes and privileged ones that were awaiting burial separately from the rest, the survivors hoping in time they might return to properly memorialize them. D's gaze landed on the form covered with a rough, green blanket, to the lank strands of white hair that flowed out around it. With movement that never would have suggested he was a dhampir and a hunter, movements much like the ones he'd once carried the first time he'd ever knelt to hold the Nymph to him he sank down to her side and pulled back the blanket.

He was hardly surprised to see that she'd not yet began to decay; with "immortals" that process might take weeks although her skin was stark pale, and body rigid. Yet he was shocked to see that someone had gone to the effort to close her horrific eyes and bathed her bloodstained body, even dressed her in a simple tunic like the ones she usually wore. But she did not look as if she were sleeping, or even at peace. Her shell looked merely like what it was, a lifeless husk of a violent end. Softly D lifted his hand and caressed her clammy cheek, held her stiff hand.

After a long moment he spoke, his head bowed and black hair veiling his face and the bloody tears that again where flowing. How he hated them, tears that were stained with the very taint that had killed her. "I am sorry Luna. I should have stayed here with you. I am sorry." Griping her hand a bit tighter as though lingering for a response, he kept on. "I don't know I did this, why I let any of this happen. I don't even know why I married you, why I let you dream of a life with me. I don't know life, I only know death. I've never brought anyone anything else. I am tainted, I was cursed from the moment he created me to kill all those I love. I killed my own mother; I don't know why I ever dreamed that I wouldn't infect you with my curse as well." His finger brushed past the marriage band she wore on her left hand. A simple thing, much like everything she wore, thin and golden with knot work and a small emerald in its center. Slowly he slid the ring off her finger, and cupped it his own left hand. When he opened it again the ring had disappeared. He made no effort to stop the blood tears that splashed down onto her face…Mina had looked so peaceful when she'd died. Why didn't Luna? Why must she look so afraid? "I never wanted you to be afraid. Not of me….not of him. Not of anything. I thought I could give you that dream at least…I truly did. You meant everything to me Luna…" he whispered committing her once flawless face to the final reaches of his memory. "But happiness and love were never things meant for me. Nor were dreams. I am sorry my dreams left you this way…"

But a look of steely resolve crossed his face, and the bloody wavier in his eyes ended, "But I will slay him for you. Him and every other shadow that lurks in this world. I'll never rest…not when I rise again. I'll dream of you every day, every moment until the day I die but I know in time your voice, your memory will fade into darkness. You'll fade from all trace of his earth, but I will never truly forget you. I'll find you in the hereafter. I promise." He answered solemnly.

He then touched his left hand to her shoulder, although the movement was oddly jerkily as thought the hand had moved to its own accord, and gruff little voice drifted from its palm. "Goodbye you sweet child of the Earth. Even I didn't foresee this….but I promise when the time comes, when Drac's has paid than I won't wake pretty boy for more. I'll let him sleep forever; I'll lead him to you if I must. "

D removed his hand and with a simple finality he bent forward and he kissed her forehead, her cold and unmoving lips then he moved away and left. He did not turn back.

That night, as Cthulhu buried Luna and the last of their dead D sank despairingly down beneath the shade of a vast weeping willow tree on the outskirts of the razed town. He held something in his hand, a thick stake of wood. Yet there was none of Nobel blood to be seen.

"So…this is how you're going to do it then? Faking your death and then bleed until its dark? Let's hope that they buy it and put you in the ground then." Said the symboit with a slight edge of anxiety. "I really don't want to defend you for the next twenty or so years. I am kinda beat myself."

It was one of the most elusive mysteries of the Nobility. It came hand in hand with immortally, along with genes that kept them aging but left them vulnerable to the sun. It was the need to rest, or rather to hibernate in the darkness of the Earth. Usually it was sparked with extreme physical or emotional distress, but sometimes it struck at random. At some point their bodies would slow, and submit to the aches and pains, and even the vulnerabilities of a mortal. Vampires would suddenly develop ghastly illnesses, or even common colds. It was a state that could be cured only falling into the deepest of sleeps, essentially to die and lay in their own graves. All bodily function would cease in this state of suspended animation save for a beat of their heart,a breath of air, or perhaps a twitch of their limbs once a day. They might lay in this death like state for a week or two before healed…it might be 20 or so years…some simply might never awaken from the slumber, there body and minds far to damaged to heal.

Many Nobles made it a elaborate ceremony, holding grand balls, bidding goodbye to their loved ones and feasting on all their slaves, fashioning gilded coffins that cradled them in the finest silt from the ground of their birth land, but in truth all the vampire needed was to be immersed in the Earth, hidden from the sunlight and the world above that had at last broken them. In this strange state however it wasn't usual for the consciousness of the vampire to remain awake, and to journey outward from the body, appearing ghost like upon the surface they were hidden from.

It wasn't unheard of for a dhampir to submit to that primal hibernation as well, depending upon the strength of the vampire that ran within their blood.

D did seem to be holding a rudimentary sort of ceremony before he closed his eyes to the world for perhaps the last time. There was the glitter of a ring on the forth finger of his left hand, the same one that Luna had once worn, and he'd wrapped something loosely about his shoulders, the singed handmade quilt that had once been Luna's.

There was no hesitation as his hands grasped the stake and hammered it fiercely into his chest, a short roar of agony bursting from D's form as he slumped down onto the ground, curling into an almost fetal position. He'd missed his heart however, by a mere centimeter or so, but it was close enough so that any human would not be able to tell. Blood began to trickle from the wound, as well as from D's mouth, and his body trembled in suffering, even as sensation was starting to fade away.

"Well….goodnight D. Please….try to feel better and wake up soon," Said the hand with a note of sincere sympathy.

He pulled the quilt tighter about him, his senses suddenly flooded with the scent of his lost life, the familiar slightly earthen aroma of the Nymph, the lingering one of roses from himself, herbs and incenses she'd burned constantly and now the stench of ashes. Another bloody tear cascaded down his cheek and onto the grass, but it was the last as D closed his eyes and did not open them again. All movements of his body ceased including the rise and fall of his chest and then the thud of his heart.

For a long time only the haze of unconsciousness drifted across his senses, until a single light broke through one that grew brighter and brighter. In the haze of his dreams he followed its path, until breaking past it and finding himself standing in ethereal sort of landscape. It had form enough, it had the shape of trees, grass, flowers and sky…but it all seemed to be mere representations to D's living eyes. The creatures that teemed here all seemed to move without purpose, or care, their eyes heavy with a certain sadness, their flesh seemed pallid, and translucent. D alone carried himself with solidity as he strode through the grass, a shimmering vision of unworldly beauty that seemed to violate this pale world with its solidity.

As though summoned forth another vision of beauty materialized before D, yet she was beauty that belonged to this world now and forever more. The vivid green of her eyes was vastly dimmed, her silvery hair and pale flesh transparent, and as she spoke her voice was whispered as though speaking from worlds away, "D…"

He regarded her sadly for a moment, then he rushed forward and took her ghostly form in his arms, pressed a kiss to her icy lips. She had just enough form for him to lightly hold to her, and for D to feel her embrace. A humanly sob betrayed Luna's ghostly form as she pressed into the sinful solidity of D's undead flesh. It was as though she were kissing the very lips of contraband, and sin, this tantalizing reminder of the life she'd been torn from.

It was a long time before the dhampir and the ghost departed.

Luna gripped D's hand tightly, any tighter and her translucent flesh would have passed through it, "I love you D. That's what I meant to say before…"

"I know."

"How are you here, alive? Have you come to bring me home…" there was a slight wavier of hope to her voice as she recalled myths she'd heard in her childhood of lovers journeying deep into the underworld to retrieve the ones they lost.

"No. There is nothing in the world than can I bring you home." D answered with a solemn finality, "I am only here because I am asleep, neither living nor dead, I am here only because I can dream of seeing you."

"Oh…" she answered crestfallen. She shifted her unworldly eyes to the ground, "You should go D. We will never be together ever again, not as long as you live. And you should live, find happiness and rest. Just forget me." She did not dare to look at him, ashamed of the veil that forever parted them.

But D merely shook his head, reached out and pulled her pale image back to him, savoring what little feel that she had. "You know I can't do that. I'll take this illusion. For now, it will do." And passionately he kissed her lips.

* * *

It was morning when the frightened survivors found D laying beneath the willow tree. He was still, paraffin pale and stiff, a stake hammered though his heart and blood pooled about him. He was a vision of beauty that had been tainted with the hand of death. Hopelessly one of the survivors sank down and pulled the thick wood from D's chest, each face scrutinized the cold and immobile one for a hint of life but none came.

"Who…who could have done this!" the survivor wept, "Our mayor…the Hunter D…"

"Isn't it pretty obvious?" answered the bar keep, Uther, staring sadly down at the dhampir.

"Impossible…" spoke another, the drunk Stephen. "Nothing can kill the Vampire Hunter D…"

"Nothing had to. He did it himself." Uther corrected solemnly.

"No, no he'd never…"

"He would." Spoke another survivor, "That Nobel took his wife…and if I am to believe the legends I've had heard about our mayor, than he had nothing at all to live for. No drive, expect hate. Until he came here."

Uther nodded, "So I've heard…he was a man that had no warmth, no emotion or feeling in his heart. Some even said he didn't even have a heart and the blood that flowed in his veins was only ice. But I guess somewhere deep inside he could love and he did. He wanted to escape what he'd been before…he never wanted to bring us to this I am sure. I guess he just never learned you cannot hide from the past."

The town of Cthulhu agreed, and together, they laid one more body to rest within the ground, next to the fresh mound of earth that had been dug for Luna the day before. They did not dare to strip the Hunters body although the armor he wore, the daggers and weapons he carried were surly costly. Doing so almost seemed like an abomination to God. They merely covered him in the handmade quilt he'd clutched to his body, and laid him down into the earth. It would be a year later when the citizens returned to the ghost town and erected markers for their dead, including a singular one for the twin graves.

_Herein Lies : "Lucy Underhill" Lunerahnefer Murray and "Desmond Underhill" The Vampire Hunter "D." _

Afterward Cthulhu faded quickly into the thing of horrific legends, and strange speculations upon where the greatest Vampire Hunter the world had ever known had gone and meet his end. Occasionally a flower seemed to appear on the graves, the gift of a sympathetic traveler or perhaps even a Hunter but few ever dared to venture into the ruins of Cthulhu. The phantom wails, and the pallid ghostly beings that walked its cracked streets were no legend, but utterly real to any unlucky traveler. It wasn't the tortured, crying of ghosts that the rare traveler found the most disheartening. It was not even the illusions of bodies hung from great spears that seemed to circle the sight night and day. It was the sparkling ghosts just over the rise of the hill, usually found beneath the willow tree. They bore the forms of a gorgeous woman and man, although it seemed the illusion of the man seemed more solid, more real. His armored form and wide brimmed travelers had made it unmistakable who he'd been in life. They would linger at the edge of Cthulhu, holding hands, seemingly whispering in voices beyond mortal ears or even lightly embracing. Anyone that dared to look into their eyes would be filled with such crushing despondency, such sadness that their bodies would ache at the sight of it.

38 years had passed since the massacre of Cthulhu, and the town of Runh that had housed its survivors had all but forgotten about it. It was only when a young hooligan snuck from the village and down to the ruins, eager to see if the rumors of hauntings were true did the name of Cthulhu, and the Hunter D return to their lips.

Not far into the ruins the boy tripped and almost broke his leg over a gaping hole in the earth. It was only blind luck that he managed to right himself by falling against a large stone and holding tightly. Panicked he pulled himself out of a deep yawning hole, that must have been six feet deep. A wild scream betrayed his lips when he saw that he'd fallen against a gravestone, the marker of where the Vampire Hunter D was said to have been laid to rest.

A horses' whiney turned his attention to the west, and just for a instant, wreathed by the moonlight he saw a figure cloaked in black, pallid and as gorgeous as the celestial body itself. His inky hair was flowing wildly out behind him. The figure was mounted on a wild horse that he coaxed with an unworldly skill up the hill, against the halo of the moonlight, and then away, into the darkness of the night.

**The End**

* * *

_Note: Ah yes, kill me for the ending. I just don't like happy endings. They kinda piss me off…and sad to say it but I don't think that D shall ever have a happy ending. Not a real one anyway. It will all be an illusion. Hence the purpose of this story. _

_Well, needless to say that I LOVED writing this. I had so so much fun stepping into D's world, and writing his character. He's a trip. If you happened to like this story and want more from me than you'll be happy to know that I am making this part of a four part saga. Ive just started the sequal, Cthulhu Dawn. But I must state that it is rest assured that Luna is not rising from dead, she's gone. I cannot stand it when OC's do that. She now just another source of torture for our poor Hunter. And yes, I will get all the grammar kinks out of this one too._

_-Sarah "shallowswan"_


End file.
